US to move $4.9 billion in Afghan central bank assets to Swiss-based trust

WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday announced that it would transfer US$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 stabilise Afghanistan's collapsed economy.

US 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 US and UN sanctions, with banking professionals - and anti-money laundering safeguards are instituted.

The fund will not resolve serious problems driving dire economic and humanitarian crises threatening to worsen as winter approaches.The Taliban's biggest fiscal challenge is developing new revenues to compensate for financial aid that provided up to 75 per cent 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.

Source: Financial Digest (financialdigest.net)

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