How a Hawala Works

In the most basic variant of the hawala system, money is transferred via a network of hawala brokers, or hawaladars.

• A customer approaches a hawala broker in one city and gives a sum of money to be transferred to a recipient in another, usually foreign, city.
• The hawala broker calls another hawala broker in the recipient's city, gives disposition instructions of the funds (usually minus a small commission), and promises to settle the debt at a later date.
• The unique feature of the system is that no promissory instruments are exchanged between the hawala brokers; the transaction takes place entirely on the honor system.
• As the system does not depend on the legal enforceability of claims, it can operate even in the absence of a legal and juridical environment.
• No records are produced of individual transactions; only a running tally of the amount owed by one broker to another is kept.
• Settlements of debts between hawala brokers can take a variety of forms, and need not take the form of direct cash transactions.

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In addition to commissions, hawala brokers often earn their profits through bypassing official exchange rates.

• Generally the funds enter the system in the source country's currency and leave the system in the recipient country's currency.
• As settlements often take place without any foreign exchange transactions, they can be made at other than official exchange rates.

Hawala is attractive to customers because it provides a fast and convenient transfer of funds, usually with a far lower commission than that charged by banks.

Its advantages are most pronounced when the receiving country applies distortive exchange rate regulations (as has been the case for many typical receiving countries such as Pakistan or Egypt) or when the banking system in the receiving country is less complex (e.g. due to differences in legal environment in places such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia).

Furthermore, the transfers are informal and not effectively regulated by governments, which is a major advantage to customers with tax, currency control, immigration, or other legal concerns.

For the same reasons, governments do not favor the system, and accusations have been made in recent years that terrorist funding often changes hands through hawala networks.