Commercial Bank of Syria General Manager said on Tuesday the decision taken by US Treasury Department against CBS lacks the legal and practical evidence supporting the accusations leveled against a bank well-known for its "very strict control measures in the monitoring funds movement throughout the past years," adding that this decision, if accepted with regard to banning CBS from dealing in dollars (which is a global currency), would be a "serious precedent that taken place for the first time in the world."
Dr. Duraid Dergham added "one may understand that a certain country can freeze the assets of another country that are retained in its own banks, but the imposition of a ban on conducting transactions in a global currency is in total contradictions with norms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that place great emphasis on the stability of the global currency exporters a new deadly weapon which they can use as they wish to exercise pressure against countries or other entities whose politics are inconsistent with their own."
The General Manager of the Commercial Bank of Syria (CBS) has also reviewed part of the bank's achievements realized since 2004. Meeting with a number of the Commercial and Economic Attaches accredited in Damascus Arab, Asian and European Embassies, Dr. Dergham talked about CBS strategy for developing and upgrading the bank's performance as well as preparations underway for the Basle 2 Agreement at a time when CBS is exposed to pressures being exercised for almost two years now.
As for accusing CBS of money laundering, Dr. Dergham indicated that CBS has set up a committee assigned with the task of monitoring banking operations, that this committee holds periodical meetings and reports to the Anti-Money Laundering Commission at the Central Bank of Syria.
Moreover, he pointed out, there is an officer at each of CBS branches who is responsible for operations of his respective branch, and reports any misconduct he observes to the management. In addition, every client is asked to complete a "Know Your Customer" from each amount exceeding SP 500,000 he wants to deposit. Besides, CBS circulates to all branches the lists of names of persons considered suspected.
Dr. Dergham pointed out that a certain clause "concern over money laundering and terrorist financing" was repeated six times on one page in the US Treasury Department's Decision, wondering whether the mere repetition is a sufficient evidence to justify the accusations.
