Hawala

An informal value-transfer system that settles payments through a network of brokers (hawaladars) without moving money across borders, relying on trust and later netting of balances. It predates formal banking and remains common across South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. FATF treats it as a money- or value-transfer service requiring registration or licensing; its lack of records makes it a channel of interest in sanctions evasion, piracy-ransom flows off Somalia, and terrorist financing. The settlement leaves no conventional bank trail.