Syria SWIFT Link Faces Correspondent Bank Trust Test

Nearly ten months after Syria sent its first financial message through the global SWIFT messaging network, the system faces challenges tied to restoring trust and activating ties between Syrian and international banks. The Central Bank of Syria is meanwhile working through a gradual timeline toward normalizing the banking system's operations.

Trust and Infrastructure Gaps

Dr. Firas Shaabo, professor of financial management at Baskent Şehir University in Turkey, said compliance is only one obstacle within a longer chain of interlinked complications. He pointed to a deeper crisis of trust between Syrian financial institutions, international bodies, and correspondent banks.

Shaabo said transparency remains lacking and banking infrastructure is severely worn down, adding that any investor or bank first looks for exchange rate stability and the ability to move funds easily, alongside controlled inflation and reserves.

Correspondent Ties Outweigh Technical Link

Abdul Rahman Mohammed, professor of finance and banking at the Faculty of Economics at Hama University, said reconnecting to SWIFT accomplished the technical dimension, but building correspondent banking relationships remains the bigger challenge. He added that the issue is not compliance alone, but convincing international banks that Syria is no longer an off-limits market.

Mohammed attributed the slow pace of full activation to several factors, including:

• The absence of a documented track record correspondent banks can rely on
• An information gap among international banks regarding the Syrian market
• The delayed evaluation visit by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), pending since 2010

Mohammed called for relying on parallel regional channels, such as the Buna Arab platform, or direct cooperation with the central banks of Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, to gradually build a clean track record.

Central Bank's Position

Central Bank of Syria Governor Safwat Raslan explained, in a post on his official Facebook page, that the SWIFT system had never stopped functioning for Syrian banks; rather, the Central Bank of Syria itself was disconnected from the network at an earlier stage due to sanctions. He noted that after restrictions were lifted, the central bank successfully reconnected to SWIFT.

Raslan said SWIFT is a secure messaging system between banks, not the determinant of whether transfers can be executed, clarifying that the core challenge lay in correspondent bank relationships that had been suspended or frozen over past years.

Tangible Results, Time Still Needed

The governor revealed that the central bank and Syrian banks are working today to restore and rebuild these relationships, noting that tangible results have begun to appear: more than six banks have activated commercial dollar transfers through their correspondents, most banks can now process euro transactions, Jordanian dinar transfers have been activated, and processing of Saudi riyal and UAE dirham payments has begun.

Raslan added that restoring a broad network of international banking relationships requires time, compliance procedures, and mutual assessment, and may take several months, stressing that the work is proceeding step by step and that the correspondent network will expand over time.