Cash crunch chaos: Syrians endure banking hell to withdraw just a few pounds

Damascus, Syria – Maer Elias standing in the Harap ATM Hall of the Bank, made an internal shortening and exhaustion. There were dozens of people around him, all like 59 -year -old Elias, waiting in the sweltering heat to withdraw money.

There was a waiting for at least three hours in front of it – assuming that the ATM was not closed from the power outages or the invoices were not finished. Damascene in one of the hottest days in the summer, between the other lifecraits occasionally interrupted by the words Elias Elias, his eyes remain steady in front of the queue.

“All this is waiting and what?” He said, wiping the sweat in the eyebrow. For the week, only 200,000 Syrian pounds (about $ 20) were able to withdraw.

“And we’re five in my family. Between food, gas and rent, how long do you think it lasts?”

People are in line to enter the real estate bank of Damascus to use a functioning ATM.

In a bank, a pile of money sits on a table. Syria’s banking and financial sectors are a turmoil that limits capital controls with withdrawal transactions to approximately 60 dollars per month.

Elias and hundreds of often participated in a Quixotic mission because they were struggling with a cash crisis that arose after the overthrow of millions of Syrian President Bashar al -Assad and the emergence of a government led by the rebellion, which were lined up on the lines of the Syrian Real Estate Bank.

For months, withdrawing money has become almost a second job, employees had to start their lineage before the banks, the lack of liquidity is drowning a destroyed economy, which was forced to mix about 14 years of civil war.

And the worst thing for Elias (and others) was that he had to do another day, so that the 500,000 Syria could collect the entire monthly salary of the Pound – Less than $ 50.

Nevertheless, Elias was more fortunate than the others as a state employee and the boss of one of the six state banks of Syria. Opposite the street, 63 -year -old Muhammad, especially in front of the private bank in front of the account did not shout. His grandson came from his house in a Damascus suburb with a 6 -year -old table and hoped to beg with a manager to complete a larger withdrawal.

However, the manager told him that he was not cash; Not even ATMs. Mohammad, who gave the first name for privacy reasons, did not have enough money to go home.

“What should I do? Begging on the street? I have been coming for weeks and these bastards refuse to give me my money,” he said. The table looked at his grandfather and didn’t say a word.

A man reinstates ATM’s Syrian pound stock in Damascus.

While sitting in his office, the Bank Manager, who refused to be defined because he was not allowed to talk to the media, insisted that he had no other option to turn Muhammad and other bosses back. He said that private banks should buy $ 20,000 in cash every day from the central bank. But most of the time, banks had no less or nothing.

“And even when cash arrives, the bank executive is not enough to meet the number of withdrawals,” he said. Shortly after, a businessman entered his office looking for a $ 500 withdrawal to pay his invoices; He left his hand empty.

When Syria’s new rulers came to power after a rapid attack in December, they commanded the financial institutions of the Assad government and stocks an economy controlled by a state full of war, corruption and sanctions: 47 The Syrian Pound, which was once valued for the US Dollar, turned into 18,000 because it fell to 18,000. Cash is heavier than one pound.

Since then, the exchange rate has risen to about $ 11,000 – if you can say improvement.

The production of the economy continues to be less than half of it in 2010 before the civil war explosion. According to a World Bank assessment in June, one quarter of the country’s 26 million people live less than $ 2,15 per day. Two -thirds pass less than $ 3.65 per day. The reconstruction of the country says it will cost from $ 250 billion to $ 400 billion.

A series of broken ATMs in Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar al -Assad’s face adorn the Syrian pound.

The banking sector has not been less destroyed. Civil war sanctions isolated Syrian banks from the global financial system. Although President Trump recently abolished most of these sanctions and European governments have done the same, Western banks are still reluctant to move the large amount of money required for restructuring.

The new officials rapidly loosened the Assad period restrictions, bought the market with cheaper imports, and lifted a moraratorium that made a criminal offense to deal with the dollar. They also implemented the limits of withdrawal in order to prevent running in banks and prevent former regime officials from evacuating and escaping their accounts.

However, nine months later, according to bank employees and economic experts, it continues with a little clarity of the reason for the limits. The World Bank reported a shortage of physical banknote despite an increase in the amount of currency between 2011-2024. He added that the invoices published in Russia were very small to significantly resist the liquidity crisis, which has monopolies to produce Syria pounds under Assad.

In the meantime, Syrians, who could not access the bank accounts, rely on the informal monetizers that are banned under Assad to buy the Gold or Dollar Pounds and the Syrian pounds they gathered during the reign of Assad despite the restrictions. Experts say that such transactions occur in an artificially reduced exchange rate.

“This seems to be a systematic policy aimed at attracting dollars from people in a country where the dollar was released and has become the main source of income because of the wire transfer.

“Where is this dollar going to the Central Bank? Apparently. Not apparently. This is something that keeps me alive at night,” he said.

A customer passes the US dollar into a money collector. When President Bashar Assad came to power, it was a crime to have the dollar.

Ammar Yusef, a Damascus-based economy expert, agreed with the assessment of Aita and the hard currency gathered by the money-changing, the primary house of the primary house of the primary house of the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham (or HTS) for years.

A solution of the authorities has recently applied for a cash crisis. Earlier this year, all public sector salaries, first published in IDLIB’de app HTS, but technical experts are insecure and not recognized by the Central Bank IDLIB -based bank, he says.

The basic components of the application to increase the trust in the country’s financial system – whether the application meets the capacity of 1,25 million civil servants and whether the Western governments meet the needs of money laundering and terrorism financing.

Other experts point to serious concerns about the wages collected by two money transfer companies licensed to pay money from Sham Cash. Both are considered close to the new government and continue to collect more than $ 3 million per year.

“Today they are in a war with the banks of the country today,” he said.

It has been announced that the government has recently been announced, and redefing the currency and eliminating two zero from each bill, he added that he would do very little to change the situation.

In Damascus’s real estate bank, with the reflections of the Syrian capital outside.

Nevertheless, these machines mean very little for Elias. After waiting for almost four hours and forced to change the queues twice before encountering a functional ATM, he pulled the Syrian pounds back during the day. He used them to buy bread and other foundations. He couldn’t get money again for a few days.

“He feels that half of the week is fined in cash,” he said, once again pushing out the crowds from the ATM hall.