Maysaa Sabreen becomes the first woman to assume the presidency of the Central Bank of Syria Syrian war news

Sabreen is the first woman to hold the position of Governor of the Central Bank of Syria in its history extending for more than 70 years.

A senior Syrian official said that Syria’s new rulers appointed Maysaa Sabreen, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Syria, to lead the institution, the first woman to do so in its more than 70-year history.

With over 15 years of experience in the field, Sabreen is a long-time official at the Central Bank and mostly focuses on supervising the country’s banking sector.

She holds a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Damascus and is a certified public accountant. Sabreen has been a member of the board of directors of the Damascus Stock Exchange since December 2018, representing the Central Bank. She also held the position of Deputy Governor and Head of the Office Control Department at the bank, according to the bank’s official website.

Sabreen replaces Muhammad Issam Hazim, who was appointed governor by President Bashar al-Assad in 2021 and remained in his position after the overthrow of Assad by the Assad government. Rebel lightning attackLed by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, on December 8.

Since the rebel takeover, the bank has taken steps to liberalize the once largely state-controlled economy, including removing the need for prior approvals on imports and exports and imposing tight controls on the use of foreign currency.

But Syria and the bank itself are still subject to severe sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western powers.

The bank also took stock of the country’s assets after the fall of Assad and a short wave of looting that led to Syrian currency being stolen but key vaults left untouched.

The sources said that the vault contains approximately 26 tons of gold, the same amount as it was at the beginning of the civil war in 2011, but foreign exchange reserves have diminished from about $18 billion before the war to about $200 million.

Sabreen is the second woman appointed by the new Syrian administration headed by Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

Earlier this month, Aisha Al-Debs She was appointed head of the Women’s Affairs Office in the Syrian Interim Government.