Syria To Join SWIFT After 14 Years Of Isolation

• 9.06.2025, 19:11

This will happen over the course of a few weeks.

Syria will be fully connected to the international payment system SWIFT. This will happen within weeks.

Syria's central bank governor Abdulkader Khusrieh told the Financial Times in an interview.

Syria is expected to be connected to SWIFT after 14 years of war and sanctions that have turned it into a rogue state.

Husrieh emphasized that connecting Syria to SWIFT will help boost foreign trade, reduce import costs and facilitate exports. It will also bring much-needed foreign currency into the country, strengthen anti-money laundering measures and reduce reliance on informal financial networks for cross-border trade.

"It is planned that all foreign trade will now go through the formal banking sector," the Syrian central bank governor revealed.

The banks and the central bank have been assigned SWIFT codes, he said, and "all that is left is for correspondent banks to resume processing transfers."

It is also planned to eliminate the role of money exchangers, which used to charge up to 40 cents on each dollar.