WASHINGTON, August 7, 2026 – The World Bank Board of Executive Directors approved yesterday a US$100 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA) to support Syria in building the foundations of a modern, secure, and digitally-enabled financial sector. The Syria Financial Sector Modernization Project will support investments that will help make financial transactions safer, faster, and more transparent, while creating conditions for better access to financial services.
After 14 years of conflict, Syria’s financial sector remains small, bank-centric, and heavily reliant on cash with minimal financial intermediation, outdated digital payment infrastructure, and challenges in supervisory, financial integrity, and financial stability systems. These constraints raise transaction costs, impede access to finance and limit Syria’s reconnection with international financial channels needed for trade and investment. A functioning financial system is vital for recovery, enabling wage and pension payments, remittances, business transactions, and facilitating trade and investment, secure and transparent delivery of humanitarian and development assistance, and more effective public revenue collection and government payments.
The Syria Financial Sector Modernization Project will support the modernization of core financial infrastructure, the rehabilitation of the banking sector, and efforts to strengthen supervision, financial stability and integrity. It will enhance the operational capacity of the Central Bank of Syria and the Financial Intelligence Unit. Specifically, the project will finance payment and financial market infrastructure and the technology environment –including credit infrastructure– required for safe, efficient, and transparent financial flows across the economy. It will also invest in the Central Bank’s core banking system, information technology, and cybersecurity capabilities. In addition, the project will support independent, system-wide Asset Quality Reviews covering public and private banks, strengthen risk-based supervision, deploy core supervisory technology applications, and enhance financial integrity and AML/CFT capabilities through investments in systems, hardware, analytical tools, and institutional capacity.
Over its implementation period, the project aims to operationalize foundational financial sector systems, enable at least 15 million electronic retail payments annually, and support at least 500,000 people and businesses, including 150,000 women, in actively using digital payments through project-supported systems. Independent Asset Quality Reviews are expected to cover the entire banking system, laying the groundwork for future banking sector reforms. These efforts will be complemented by stronger supervision, including more risk-based prudential and AML/CFT supervisory reviews of financial institutions.
Taken together, the project-supported investments and reforms will strengthen the financial sector’s capacity to support economic activity, trade, investment, access to finance, and financial inclusion.
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read more: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2026/08/07/syria-world-bank-approves-us-100-million-grant-for-financial-sector-modernization
