Doing Business in Syria Investor Guide: Banking Sector, drafted April 2026, funded by the US Department of State, implemented by Creative Associates International with Karam Shaar Advisory Limited, published on the US Embassy Damascus site
Source ID
SRC-192
Citation
Doing Business in Syria Investor Guide: Banking Sector, drafted April 2026, funded by the US Department of State, implemented by Creative Associates International with Karam Shaar Advisory Limited, published on the US Embassy Damascus site
Retrieved 17 August 2026 from sy.usembassy.gov, HTTP 200, fourteen pages
Claims
CH6 bank list and registered capital; the supervisory and AML architecture in Syrian law; correspondent banking conditions
Status
READ
Version history
The register keeps changing after the book is fixed in print. Each entry below was added to this row in the order shown.
READ 17 August 2026 AT PAGES 1 TO 5, 9, 10, 12, 13 AND 14; PAGES 6, 7, 8 AND 11 ARE NOT READ. TIER MUST NOT BE INFLATED BY ITS DOMAIN: it is a consultancy product hosted by an embassy, and it carries an express disclaimer that it does not constitute a legal interpretation or statement of policy and that neither the US Government nor the Department of State guarantees its accuracy. Its value is that it NAMES THE PRIMARY INSTRUMENTS, which are the next retrievals. ANNEX 3 ANSWERS THE SUPERVISION QUESTION AND THE ANSWER IS STRIKING: licensing rests on Law 28 of 2001 and Law 35 of 2005 as amended by Law 3 of 2010; governance on Regulation 489 of 2009; capital adequacy on Regulation 253 of 2007; liquidity on Regulation 588 of 2009; risk management on Regulations 390 of 2008, 93 of 2004, 106 of 2005, 74 of 2004, 107 of 2005 and 4 of 2019; disclosure on Resolution 110 of 2019; banking secrecy on Regulation 30 of 2010; AML/CFT on Regulation 33 of 2005, Regulation 851 of 2014 and Regulation 19 of 2019. EVERY ONE OF THEM PREDATES DECEMBER 2024, SO THE OPERATIVE LEGAL BASIS FOR BANK SUPERVISION IN SYRIA AS AT APRIL 2026 IS THE LAW OF THE STATE THAT FELL. Annex 2 lists 21 banks, 11 private conventional, 4 private Islamic and 6 public, with registered capital in billion SYP; THE ANNEX GIVES NO DATE AND NO EXCHANGE RATE FOR THOSE FIGURES, so they may not be converted or summed into a currency total. Other figures: credit about 4 per cent of GDP against over 23 per cent before 2011; assets about 75 per cent of GDP before 2011; 4 branches and 5 ATMs per 100,000 inhabitants. Section 3.1 records restricted correspondent relationships and extended processing 'even where formally permitted', which is the chapter's distinction stated by a source that is not this book.
PATH CORRECTED 17 August 2026. The research copy had been saved under a filename carrying a DIFFERENT SRC number, because the files were named before the register ids were final. Six rows were affected; the v10 diff review found one of them and recorded it as an observation. The file is unchanged; only its name and this row's path are.
READ IN FULL 17 August 2026: pages 6, 7, 8 and 11, the four previously unread, are now read and this row's reading is complete. PAGE 6 STATES THE CHAPTER'S THESIS IN THE GUIDE'S OWN WORDS: recent developments include 'restored correspondent relationships, steps toward European re-engagement, and reconnection with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York', yet the system 'remains constrained by limited coverage, high compliance thresholds, and continued FATF grey-listing', so that 'cross-border transactions, trade finance, and foreign currency operations remain limited in practice, EVEN WHERE FORMALLY PERMITTED'. It also records reform in prospect rather than in force: POTENTIAL increases in capital requirements, strengthening of regulatory frameworks, AML/CFT improvement. PAGE 7 IS THE SUPERVISORY MAP, Figure 1: the Monetary and Credit Council as primary regulatory authority above the Central Bank of Syria, with the AML Commission, the Syria Commission on Financial Markets and Securities and the Damascus Securities Exchange alongside, and a Government Commissioner Directorate at Banks. Capital adequacy, liquidity ratios, large exposure limits and investment ceilings sit with the Council; licensing, on-site and off-site supervision, corrective measures and administrative sanctions with the Central Bank. PAGE 11 SUPPLIES ONE FACT WORTH CARRYING: the Commission at SRC-204 'acts as the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU)', which is why its annual reports at SRC-205 are the supervisor's own account of suspicious transaction reporting. THE ANNEX ALSO PRINTS NAMED OFFICIALS WITH EMAIL ADDRESSES AND A MOBILE NUMBER. Those are deliberately not copied into this register and must not appear in the manuscript: they are personal contact details of living individuals and nothing in the argument needs them.