Account Agreement in Damascus
The governor of the Central Bank of Syria, Mohammad Safwat Rslan, signed an agreement on 29 July 2026 with the governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, Fatih Karahan, to open an official account for the Syrian central bank at its Turkish counterpart. The signing took place at the central bank's headquarters in Damascus.
Officials described the account as a tool to facilitate financial and commercial transactions and to deepen banking and trade cooperation between the two neighboring countries.
Reviving Correspondent Banking
A supervising director at the Syrian central bank said the agreement forms part of a broader strategy to reactivate the bank's network of correspondent accounts held abroad. He identified Turkey's central bank as an important correspondent institution, particularly given the existing trade between the two economies.
The move addresses one of the main obstacles facing cross-border business: the absence of direct banking channels that allow payments to settle without intermediaries. Syrian and Turkish trade has grown in recent years even as such a channel remained missing.
Payment Systems and Expertise
Alongside the account, the two sides agreed to cooperate and exchange expertise on payment systems and a range of technical and financial matters. The Syrian central bank framed this as part of its wider effort to modernize the country's payment infrastructure.
Officials said the visit that produced the signing was not merely protocol, and that it followed a series of preparatory meetings held in Turkey and Damascus in recent weeks.
Groundwork and Next Steps
Those preparatory talks covered several files, including the withdrawal of the Turkish lira from northern Syria, cooperation on correspondent accounts, and support for Syrian commercial banks seeking to open their own correspondent accounts in Turkey.
The step had been signaled earlier. On 10 April 2026, the previous governor of the Syrian central bank said the institution was in the final stages of establishing a correspondent account with Turkey's central bank, part of an effort to develop monetary and banking ties and ease trade and investment between the two states.