Taliban Could Get over $9 Billion in Foreign Reserves as they March on Kabul
Posted on 08/15/2021
Da Afghanistan Bank (Bank of Afghanistan) is the central bank of Afghanistan. The Taliban is taking over Kabul. The central bank has official gross foreign exchange reserves of over US$ 9 billion. The central bank regulates all banking and money handling operations in Afghanistan. The bank currently has 46 branches throughout the country, with five of these situated in Kabul, where the headquarters is also based. Most of those reserves were held outside of Afghanistan.
The central bank has around US$ 1,298,900,000 in gold reserves, according to June 2021 figures and US$ 6.16 billion in investments.
However, most of that money is held in assets such as U.S. Treasuries and gold. Around US$ 7 billion is at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, around US$ 1.3 billion in international accounts, and US$ 700 million at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
On August 15, 2021, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and officials in Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control froze Afghan government reserves held in U.S. bank accounts. The Taliban were on the hunt for the central bank governor of Da Afghanistan Bank.