Afghan Biographies

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)


Name Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
Ethnic backgr.
Date of birth
Function/Grade Afghan Fund Afghanistan Trust Fund
History and Biodata

$3.5 bln Geneva-based trust aims to help stabilize Afghan economy Afghanistan Trust Fund

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
 

The United States said on Wednesday it was setting up an outside, professionally-run fund to manage $3.5 billion in Afghanistan’s reserves, concluding it cannot trust the Taliban leadership with the country’s money.

The decision comes after talks between the Taliban and the United States failed to convince President Joe Biden’s administration that it should hand over assets frozen when the militants returned to power 13 months ago, despite the dire humanitarian needs in Afghanistan.

The new Afghan Fund, based in Geneva, will be put in charge of core central bank functions such as paying Afghanistan’s international debt, electricity imports and for future necessities such as printing currency.

In a letter to Afghanistan’s central bank, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo voiced regret that it had not addressed US concerns including demonstrating independence from the Taliban, enforcing pre-Taliban commitments against counter-terrorism funding and money laundering, and bringing in a reputable outside monitor.

Treasury official says America cannot trust Taliban leadership with the country’s money; Afghan central bank terms transfer of reserves ‘unacceptable’

“There is currently no institution in Afghanistan that can guarantee that these funds would be used only for the benefit of the people of Afghanistan, including DAB,” he wrote, using the acronym of the central Da Afghanistan Bank.

“Until these conditions are met, sending assets to DAB would place them at unacceptable risk and jeopardise them as a source of support for the Afghan people,” he wrote in a letter.

“The Afghan Fund will protect, preserve and make targeted disbursements of that $3.5 billion to help provide greater stability to the Afghan economy,” the US Treasury said in a statement.

US officials said that no money would go to the Afghan central bank, known as DAB, until it is “free of political interference” — diplomatic parlance for replacing the bank’s top Taliban officials, two of whom are under US and UN sanctions, with banking professionals — and anti-money laundering safeguards are instituted.

“Until these conditions are met, sending assets to DAB would place them at unacceptable risk and jeopardise them as a source of support for the Afghan people,” US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Ademeyo said in a letter to the central bank’s Supreme Council.

The DAB said the central bank’s reserves belonged to the Afghan people and their purpose was to ensure currency stability, the strength of the financial system, and facilitating international trade.

“Any decision regarding the assignment, use or transfer of the reserves for unrelated goals is unacceptable to DAB,” a DAB statement said.
 

A member of the Afghanistan Trust Fund, Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, said that the Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW) is due to deliver new Afghani banknotes to Afghanistan within one month.

“DA Afghanistan Bank signed one contract with PWPW, a Polish printing company, for 380 million banknotes of various denominations with a face value of 10 billion Afghanis,” Mehrabi said. “PWPW should deliver these notes in a month, possibly earlier. These banknotes should inject adequate liquidity into the market.”

According to Mehrabi, these banknotes have already been printed.

This comes as a spokesman for the US Department of State, Ned Price, said at a press conference that the US and its partners have been working hard with the international banks to facilitate a payment transfer from Afghanistan’s Central Bank to European printing companies where new banknotes will be produced.

“This is about the welfare and the well-being of the Afghan people. They have suffered from the deterioration of these banknotes,” Price said.

Mehrabi said another contract 390 million banknotes of various denominations with a face value of 10 billion Afghanis was signed with the French company.

“There are other banknotes coming from a French company and the delivery dates will be determined later,” Mehrabisaid.

 

The new foundation is based in Geneva and has an account with the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which provides financial services to central banks.

“The BIS is establishing a customer relationship with the Fund for the Afghan People. The BIS role is limited to providing banking services to and executing the instructions of the Board of Trustees of the Fund without involvement in the Fund’s governance or decision making,” the BIS said, adding it would comply with all applicable sanctions and regulations.

The Swiss government said it would support the foundation that it helped Washington set up by contributing finance and development expertise. It named foreign ministry official Alexandra Baumann as its board representative. Biden in February sequestered “for the benefit of the Afghan people” the $3.5 billion in DAB assets to be transferred into the new trust fund.

The other $3.5 billion is being contested in lawsuits against the Taliban stemming from the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Courts could decide to release that money, which could be deposited in the new trust fund.(20220915)



The United States on Wednesday announced that it would transfer $3.5 billion in Afghan central bank assets into a new Swiss-based trust fund that will be shielded from the Taliban and used to help stabilize Afghanistan's collapsed economy.

The Afghan Fund, managed by a board of trustees, could pay for critical imports like electricity, cover debt payments to international financial institutions, protecting Afghanistan's eligibility for development aid, and fund the printing of new currency.

"The Afghan Fund will protect, preserve and make targeted disbursements of that $3.5 billion to help provide greater stability to the Afghan economy," the U.S. Treasury said in a statement.

U.S. officials said no money would go to the Afghan central bank, known as DAB, until it is "free of political interference" - diplomatic parlance for replacing the bank's top Taliban officials, two of whom are under U.S. and U.N. sanctions, with banking professionals - and anti-money laundering safeguards are instituted.

"Until these conditions are met, sending assets to DAB would place them at unacceptable risk and jeopardize them as a source of support for the Afghan people," U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Ademeyo said in a letter to the central bank's Supreme Council.

The DAB said the central bank's reserves belonged to the Afghan people and their purpose was to ensure currency stability, the strength of the financial system, and facilitating international trade.

"Any decision regarding the assignment, use or transfer of the reserves for unrelated goals is unacceptable to DAB," a DAB statement said.

The new foundation is based in Geneva and has an account with the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which provides financial services to central banks.

"The BIS is establishing a customer relationship with the Fund for the Afghan People. The BIS role is limited to providing banking services to and executing the instructions of the Board of Trustees of the Fund without involvement in the Fund's governance or decision making," the BIS said, adding it would comply with all applicable sanctions and regulations.

The Swiss government said it would support the foundation that it helped Washington set up by contributing finance and development expertise. It named foreign ministry official Alexandra Baumann as its board representative.

The fund will not resolve serious problems driving dire economic and humanitarian crises threatening to worsen as winter approaches. Nearly half of Afghanistan's 40 million people face "acute hunger," according to the United Nations.

The Taliban's biggest fiscal challenge is developing new revenues to compensate for financial aid that provided up to 75% of government spending that the United States and other donors ended after the Islamists seized Kabul in August 2021 as the last American troops left, ending two decades of war.

"The economy of Afghanistan faces serious structural issues, exacerbated by the Taliban takeover," a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in a briefing about the new fund.

The crises also have been fueled by decades of war, drought, the COVID-19 pandemic, endemic corruption and a cutoff of the central bank from the international banking system.

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that the $3.5 billion has yet to be deposited into the new fund, but the transfer would take place "as soon as possible."

Creation of the new trust fund comes after months of talks between U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, Switzerland, other parties and the Taliban, who demanded the return of $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets held in the United States.

The talks continued despite U.S. anger at the Taliban's harboring of late al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri - killed on July 31 in a CIA drone strike on his Kabul safe house - and international outrage at the militants' human rights crackdown, including barring girls from state-run secondary schools.

Biden in February sequestered "for the benefit of the Afghan people" the $3.5 billion in DAB assets to be transferred into the new trust fund.

The other $3.5 billion is being contested in lawsuits against the Taliban stemming from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Courts could decide to release that money, which could be deposited in the new trust fund.

Another approximately $2 billion in Afghan central bank assets held in European and Emirati banks also could end up in the fund.

The fund's board also comprises U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Scott Miller, Anwar Ahady, a former Afghan central bank chief and former finance minister, and Shah Mehrabi, a U.S. academic who remains on the DAB Supreme Council.

The board of trustees, which is comprised of representatives from the US and Switzerland, as well as Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, who formerly served as Afghan Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Shah Mohammad Mehrabi, will make major decisions about the $3.5 billion Afghan assets. There will be an additional advisory body of Afghan professionals and experienced people.
 

The US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said that the “new printed Afghani will replace bank notes” in Afghan markets. He made the remarks while speaking about the Afghan frozen funds in a Zoom conference. "So I am very pleased to say that in the past 24 hours, we finally have seen the conclusion of currency transaction… this will mean that new printed Afghani will replace banknotes that ... are virtually disintegrating in the system." “I don’t have a great sense of exactly when those banknotes are going to show up in Afghanistan, but we are going to continue supporting the priority transaction,” West said.

However, the time when the new banknotes will enter the Afghan markets has not been determined.

In the conference West said that in August 2021 it was not the executive branch that told the banks to suspend access, it was the banks. He said the first meeting of the board of trustees is expected to take place next month in Switzerland.

 

Last Modified 2022-11-21
Established 2022-10-22