MOU Signed in Washington
Syria's Finance Minister Mohammad Yasser Barniyeh signed a memorandum of understanding in Washington with Oliver Wyman, an international management consulting firm, to chart the restructuring of the country's state-owned banking sector. The engagement is funded by the Qatar Development Fund and supported by the U.S. Treasury and the World Bank.
Oliver Wyman delivered a sector-wide assessment covering operational systems, compliance with international accounting standards, deposits, liquidity, risk frameworks, loans, credit facilities, guarantees, and banking products on offer.
Six State Banks Under Review
The review covers six state-owned institutions: the Real Estate Bank, the Commercial Bank of Syria, the Popular Credit Bank, the Savings Bank, the Agricultural Cooperative Bank, and the Industrial Bank. Together they form the backbone of public-sector finance, serving wage earners, farmers, manufacturers, and small importers.
The diagnostic step is intended to surface gaps in asset quality, liquidity buffers, and governance that have accumulated through more than a decade of war, sanctions, and currency collapse, and to size the capital each institution would need to meet contemporary banking norms.
Three Paths Forward
The consultant has put forward three options for each bank: restructuring as a state-owned joint-stock company, full privatization or acquisition by a foreign bank, or a strategic partnership with an Arab or foreign banking group. The choice is to be made on a bank-by-bank basis rather than imposed uniformly across the sector.
The menu attempts to preserve public access to credit while recapitalizing and modernizing institutions that have fallen behind regional banking standards, and it opens the door to direct foreign ownership of significant Syrian financial assets.
Linked to Decree 70
The advisory engagement runs alongside Decree No. 70 of 2026, which sets out a framework for settling troubled loans and rescheduling debts owed to state banks. Cleaning the legacy balance sheets is a standard precondition for any subsequent restructuring or private-investor interest.
No public timetable has been issued for translating Oliver Wyman's recommendations into legislation, and the choice among the three options for each bank rests with the cabinet.