A First Syndicated Deal
Three Syrian banks have jointly financed a loan of about $25 million (USD) to fund two infrastructure projects in Damascus, the Al-Mujtahid tunnel and the Qasioun development. The transaction is described as the first syndicated loan of its kind arranged in the country, with several lenders sharing a single facility rather than one bank carrying it alone.
The financing was structured along Islamic lines, and the proceeds are earmarked for completing the two projects in the capital.
Three Lenders Share the Risk
The participating banks were Bank Al-Baraka Syria, Qatar National Bank Syria, and the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria. Each contributed roughly $8 million to the facility, splitting both the funding and the exposure across a private Islamic bank, the local unit of a Gulf lender, and a public bank.
A Signal of Thin Capital
That three established institutions were needed to assemble a sum as modest as $25 million points to the limited lending capacity of any single bank. Minimum capital requirements were set in 2010 and have since lost much of their purchasing power, as the Syrian pound (SYP) depreciated sharply over the following years.
With eroded capital bases, individual banks are constrained in how much credit they can extend on their own, pushing them toward pooled arrangements for even medium-sized projects.
Deposits and Outside Losses
The banking sector held about $4.9 billion in deposits across 14 commercial banks in 2024, a base that has not translated into comparable lending power. Part of the weakness is tied to roughly $1.6 billion in losses linked to exposure to Lebanon's banking crisis.
The combination of depleted capital and foreign losses has left lenders cautious, making syndicated structures a practical way to finance reconstruction work while spreading risk.