Central Bank of Syria

Central Bank of Syria
مصرف سورية المركزي

Central Bank of Syria on the Sabaa Bahrat Square in Damascus
Headquarters	Damascus, Syria
Established	1953
Governor	Duraid Durgham
Central bank of	Syria
Currency	Syrian Pound SYP (ISO 4217)
Bank rate	4.00%
Interest on reserves	6.00%
Website	http://www.banquecentrale.gov.sy/

The Central Bank of Syria (Arabic: مصرف سورية المركزي‎‎, Masrif Suriat Almarkazi) is the central bank of Syria. The bank is located in Damascus with 11 branches in provincial capitals. It was established in 1953 and started its operations in 1956. The objective of the bank is "to foster the stability integrity and efficiency of the nation’s financial and payment systems so as to promote optimal macro economic performance".

Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, it has been reported that Syria's gold reserves have been cut in half from the pre-civil war amount of around $17 billion, due to the Syrian government resorting to selling off its reserves as a way of coping with international sanctions. The Governor of the Central Bank of Syria Adib Mayalah has sought to deny these reports. This is similar to how the Syrian government is having to use up its foreign reserves to meet the demands of a budget deficit which has greatly increased to around $6.7 Billion USD.

The US, Canada, EU, Arab League and Turkey all imposed Sanctions on the central bank because of Syrian civil war. In the case of the US sanctions had already been in place against the Central Bank of Syria as a result of Section 311 of the Patriot Act, which accused the Bank of money laundering.

The Central Bank of Syria has actively been trying to undermine these various sanctions, with Bank officials meeting with friendly institutions such as Gazprombank executives in Moscow in March 2012. The Central Bank of Syria has taken an increasingly clandestine role in the domestic private sector as the country's failing economy has deterred foreign investment.