Business Maverick

Business Maverick

U.S. Freezes Nearly $9.5 Billion Afghanistan Central Bank Assets

A pedestrian walks past a blast wall in front of the headquarters of the Da Afghanistan Bank, Afghanistan's central bank, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2013. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
By Bloomberg
18 Aug 2021
0

The U.S. has frozen nearly $9.5 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank and stopped shipments of cash to the nation as it tries to keep a Taliban-led government from accessing the money, an administration official confirmed Tuesday. 

The official said that any central bank assets that the Afghan government has in the U.S. will not be available to the Taliban, which remains on the Treasury Department’s sanctions designation list.Ajmal Ahmady, acting head of Da Afghan Bank, the nation’s central bank, early Monday tweeted that he learned on Friday that shipments of dollars would stop as the U.S. tried to block any Taliban effort to gain access to the funds. DAB has $9.5 billion in assets, a sizeable portion of which is in accounts with the New York Federal Reserve and U.S.-based financial institutions.

U.S. sanctions on the Taliban mean that they cannot access any funds. The vast majority of DAB’s assets are not currently held in Afghanistan, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The U.S. Treasury Department declined to comment.

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

Top Reads This Hour

The ups and occasional downs of learning how to socialise well in a small town
Maverick Life

The ups and occasional downs of learning how to socialise well in a small town
AirFryday: Tripping on cheesy mushroom toasties
TGIFood

AirFryday: Tripping on cheesy mushroom toasties
Life begins after 55 — tenacious SA seniors redefine what it means to age
Business Maverick

Life begins after 55 — tenacious SA seniors redefine what it means to age
Pretoria outraged by UK’s travel terror warning, but Britain says advisory posted in 2022
Maverick News

Pretoria outraged by UK’s travel terror warning, but Britain says advisory posted in 2022
Fact Check — Is Markus Jooste really dead?
Maverick News

Fact Check — Is Markus Jooste really dead?

TOP READS IN SECTION

Life begins after 55 — tenacious SA seniors redefine what it means to age
Business Maverick

Life begins after 55 — tenacious SA seniors redefine what it means to age
Private sector may have to foot R200bn for expanding SA’s electricity grid
Business Maverick

Private sector may have to foot R200bn for expanding SA’s electricity grid
Coca-Cola Beverages SA wins Concourt appeal against Competition Commission over retrenchments
Maverick News

Coca-Cola Beverages SA wins Concourt appeal against Competition Commission over retrenchments
Sponsor our golf day or else! Extortion has entered silly season
Business Maverick

Sponsor our golf day or else! Extortion has entered silly season
Cartoon Thursday with Rico
South Africa

Cartoon Thursday with Rico

Investigations

News & Analysis

Features

Newsletters

Community

DM168

Daily Maverick © All rights reserved

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


FAQ | Contact Us

Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

South Africa needs good journalism — and we need your help to keep delivering it

The market failure of journalism has caused a 70% loss of jobs in our industry. The result is entire regions of South Africa with little to no editorial coverage - and no independent accountability measures because of it. Daily Maverick has proven that we can deliver impact on South Africa.

There's a misconception that Daily Maverick, because it's a national news publisher, is in every corner of the country.

We're not.  But we need to be.  Help us get there.

Become a Maverick Insider

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options
Daily Maverick Elections Toolbox

Feeling powerless in politics?

Equip yourself with the tools you need for an informed decision this election. Get the Elections Toolbox with shareable party manifesto guide.