Law No. 28 of 2001 on the establishment of private banks, Syrian Arab Republic, Arabic, six pages, published by the Central Bank of Syria
Source ID
SRC-203
Citation
Law No. 28 of 2001 on the establishment of private banks, Syrian Arab Republic, Arabic, six pages, published by the Central Bank of Syria
URL or path
research/SRC-203_Syria_Law_28_of_2001_private_banks.pdf; index page at research/SRC-203_Syria_Law_28_of_2001_private_banks.html; page images at research/SRC-203_Syria_Law_28_of_2001_private_banks_pages/
Type
Enacted law, Syrian, Arabic
Hierarchy tier
1
Published
2001-03
Accessed
2026-08-17
Snapshot
Retrieved 17 August 2026 direct from cb.gov.sy, HTTP 200, 64,304 bytes, six pages, text layer present
Claims
CH6 bank licensing, ownership and capital; the legal basis SRC-192 Annex 3 names for market entry
Status
READ_IN_PART
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.
RETRIEVED AND READ AT ARTICLES 1 TO 4 ON 17 August 2026; ARTICLES 5 ONWARDS, INCLUDING ARTICLE 9 WHICH SETS THE FOREIGN SHAREHOLDING CAP, ARE NOT READ AND ARE READING OWED. This is the instrument SRC-192's Annex 3 names as the legal basis for bank licensing and capital, and SRC-192 is a consultancy guide naming it rather than the law itself, so this row replaces a table about the law with the law. WHAT THE OPENING ARTICLES PROVIDE, subject to the digit caution below. Article 1: banks may be established as private Syrian joint stock companies, or as joint companies in which the public banking sector, the General Syrian Insurance Establishment and other savings institutions participate by Cabinet decision at a stated share of capital, and they operate under the supervision and control of the Central Bank of Syria under the Basic Monetary Law of 1953 and its amendments, at SRC-202 as amended. Article 2: shares are nominal and tradable except public-sector shares, and are owned by Syrian nationals whether natural or legal persons. Article 3: the Cabinet may permit Arab and foreign nationals to participate, capped by Article 9, with subscriptions paid in foreign currency at the prevailing market rate. Article 4: application for licence is made to the Central Bank. THE POINT FOR THE CHAPTER: this is a 2001 statute, enacted under the former state, still the operative basis for licensing a bank in Syria as at April 2026 on SRC-192's account. It predates December 2024 by 23 years. A CAUTION THAT BOUNDS EVERY FIGURE TAKEN FROM THIS FILE: the Arabic text layer extracts with DIGIT ORDER REVERSED. The law number extracts as ٨٢ for 28, the year as ١٠٠٢ for 2001, the Basic Monetary Law as ٧٨ for 87 and its year as ٣٥٩١ for 1953, and 25 per cent as ٥٢. Every numeral read from the text layer must be confirmed against a rendered page image before it is printed, exactly as the Chapter 5 Arabic instruments required.
READ AT PAGE 2 ON 17 August 2026 from a rendered image, covering Articles 4(ج) to 9; pages 3 to 6 remain reading owed. CAPITAL AND OWNERSHIP, WHICH IS WHAT THE CHAPTER WANTED. ARTICLE 6 requires the licence instrument to specify: bank capital NOT LESS THAN 1,500 MILLION SYRIAN POUNDS; the public sector's share where the bank is a joint company; a share nominal value NOT LESS THAN 500 SYRIAN POUNDS; and FOUNDERS' SHARES OF NOT LESS THAN 25 PER CENT OF CAPITAL AT APPLICATION, WITH A NATURAL PERSON'S SHARE NOT EXCEEDING 5 PER CENT AND A LEGAL PERSON'S NOT EXCEEDING 49 PER CENT, excluding the state's share. It also requires regard to be had to an applicant legal person's banking expertise, global reputation and financial solvency against prevailing international standards. Article 7: shares beyond the founders' are offered to public subscription, 50 per cent of nominal value paid on subscription and the balance within six months of licensing. Article 8: resident Syrians pay in Syrian currency and external contributions in foreign currency. Article 9: founders may not assign their shares until THREE PROFITABLE BALANCE SHEETS have been issued, and assignment is only to Syrian persons or to a non-Syrian entity approved in advance by the Central Bank AND by decision of the Council of Ministers. A BAR THIS READING CREATES RATHER THAN CLOSES, AND IT MATTERS. Article 3 permits Arab and foreign participation 'provided their shares do not exceed the percentage specified in Article 9', AND ARTICLE 9 AS PRINTED IN THIS COPY CONTAINS NO PERCENTAGE. The cap that does appear is Article 6's 49 per cent for a legal person. The most likely explanation is that THIS IS THE ORIGINAL 2001 TEXT AND NOT THE TEXT AS AMENDED, SRC-192 recording an amendment by Law 3 of 2010, which is not held. SO THE CHAPTER MAY NOT STATE THE CURRENT FOREIGN SHAREHOLDING CAP FROM THIS DOCUMENT. It may state what the 2001 law required, dated as such. Law 3 of 2010 is a named and untried retrieval. ARTICLE 4(ج) ADDS ANOTHER GAZETTE HOOK: the Central Bank registers a licensed bank in the banks register at the Government Commission AFTER THE LICENSING DECISION IS PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE, and the bank may not begin business before that registration. Article 4(د): the licence lapses if business does not begin within a year of registration.
AMENDED 18 AUGUST 2026. THE BLANK AT ARTICLE 9 IS EXPLAINED AND THE OPERATIVE TEXT IS HELD AT SRC-245. Article 3 of Law 3 of 2010 replaced paragraph (c) of Article 9 with a 49 per cent ceiling on non-Syrian ownership, raisable to 60 by a Council of Ministers decision on the Credit and Monetary Council's proposal where the largest share goes to a qualifying strategic partner. THE CENTRAL BANK'S PUBLISHED COPY IS THEREFORE NOT THE OPERATIVE TEXT, which is what the chapter suspected and could not show. STILL NOT ESTABLISHED: what the 2001 original of Article 9(c) said, and whether anything after 2010 amends it again.