(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian Central Bank has accused exchange and money transfer companies with supporting terrorism, which led to their closure with the promise to put the owners under trial following formal and thorough investigations.
On Thursday morning, the Central Bank published an official statement saying that the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing commission have taken measures against some money transfer companies branches, even closing some.
The statement maintains that, “These measures are a result of information that indicate the involvement of these branches in external, unauthorized transfers from unknown sources, which violates a number of regulations with high risks of laundering and terrorist financing.”
“The Commission calls upon the citizens to report receiving any external transfers, especially through the companies that have been sanctioned, as they violate the law and harm the national economy,” the statement concluded.
Meanwhile, the Syrian pound is suffering a continuous collapse, reaching an unprecedented low.
Apparently, the failure of the central bank to control the pace of the exchange market and to revitalize the pound is the real motive behind this attack on exchange companies, in order to divert attention and to give the impression that the deterioration of the SYP is due to external conspiracy rather than the clumsy policies of the regime.
At the start of Syria's almost nine-year war, the rate stood at around 48 pounds to the dollar.
The declining value of the pound is a sure sign of Syria's ailing economy.
The civil war has battered the country's finances and depleted its foreign reserves.
A flurry of international sanctions on Bashar al-Assad's regime and associated businessmen since the start of the war in 2011 has compounded the situation.
The United Nations estimates the conflict has caused some $400 billion in war-related destruction.
The rapid depreciation of the Syrian pound has caused a further decline in the living standards of ordinary Syrians and threatens the continued functioning of what remains of the state, according to Carnegie Think Tank.
Aron Lund in a report published by the veteran Middle East Center in 2016 says: If the formal economy proceeds to break down in more fundamental ways than it has already, if the SYP loses even more of its purchasing power, and if state institutions cede ground to private charities, the black market, and militias, then the Assad regime will continue to evolve from an institutional state apparatus into a coalition of warlords. While tragic for Syria, such a development is especially dangerous for Assad himself, since his long term strategy is predicated on an ability to present himself as the last barrier against a permanent state collapse in Syria.
Reversing the decline of the government’s financial writ is therefore just as important to Assad as winning the battles on the ground. So far, he has seemed considerably more successful at the latter than the former.
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