(DAB, ps, د افغانستان بانک; prs, بانک مرکزی افغانستان) is the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. It regulates all

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

and money handling operations in Afghanistan. The bank currently has 46 branches throughout the country, with five of these situated in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

, where the headquarters is also based. Da Afghanistan Bank is a wholly

government-owned State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownersh ...

bank, established in 1939. DAB is active in developing policies to promote

financial inclusion Financial inclusion is defined as the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and service ...

and a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. In May 2020, the bank launched a campaign to promote the use of Afghan currency instead of

Iranian rials The rial ( fa, ریال ایران, riyâl-è Irân; sign: ﷼; abbreviation: Rl (singular) and Rls (plural) or IR in Latin; ISO code: IRR) is the official currency of Iran. There is no official symbol for the currency but the Iranian standar ...

in the western provinces.

Bank's seal

The seal of Da Afghanistan Bank has the name of the bank in

Pashto Pashto (,; , ) is an Eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family. It is known in historical Persian literature as Afghani (). Spoken as a native language mostly by ethnic Pashtuns, it is one of the two official langua ...

at the top and

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...

at the bottom, the year 1939 in which it was established, and a depiction of a

Eucratides I Eucratides I the Great ( Koinē Greek: , ''Eúkratides Mégas'') (reigned 172/171–145 BC) was one of the most important Greco-Bactrian kings. Eucratides overthrew the Euthydemid dynasty and restored the Diodotids to power. He fought agains ...

-era coin with the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

text, "" which means "Of the great king Eucratides".

Mission

Basic tasks of DAB are: * Formulate, adopt and execute the

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...

of Afghanistan. * Hold and manage the official

foreign-exchange reserves Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence ...

of Afghanistan. * Print and issue afghani banknotes and coins. * Act as banker and adviser to, and as fiscal agent of the state. * License, regulate and supervise banks, foreign exchange dealers, money service providers, payment system operators, securities service providers, securities transfer system operators. * Establish, maintain and promote sound and efficient systems for payments, for transfers of securities issued by the state or DAB, and for the clearing and settlement of payment transactions and transactions in such securities. * Accept foreign bank applications from banks that wish to operate in Afghanistan.

Supreme Council

As of July 2021, the Supreme Council at DAB consisted of: *

Ajmal Ahmady Ajmal Ahmady ( Persian/Pashto: ) is an Afghan-American economist and politician who formerly served as the Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Da Afghanistan Bank, the Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan, the ...

, Acting Governor and Acting Chairman of Supreme Council * Dr. Shah Mohammad Mehrabi – Member * Katrin Fakiri – Member * Abdul Wakil Muntazer – Member * Muhammad Naim Azimi – Member The Supreme Council is currently unknown due to the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Governors

* Habibullah Malie Achekzai, 1954–1960 * Abdul Hay Azizi, 1960–1975 *

Mohammad Hakim Khan Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...

, 1975–1980 *

Ghulam Hussain Jujeni Ghulam ( ar, غلام, ) is an Arabic word meaning ''servant'', ''assistant'', ''boy'', or ''youth''. It is used to describe young servants in paradise. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser ...

, 1980–1982 * Mehrabuddin Paktiawal, 1982–1985 *

Abdul Basir Ranjbar Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word '' Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and the definite prefix '' al / el'' (, mea ...

, 1985–1988 * Mohammad Kabir, 1988–1990 *

Khalil Sediq Khalil, Khelil, or Khaleel may refer to: People * Khalil (Pashtun tribe) * Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931), Lebanese-American writer, poet, visual artist, and Lebanese nationalist * Khalil (scholar), 19th century Islamic scholar in the Emirate of H ...

, 1990–1991 *

Abdul Wahab Asefi Abdul (also transliterated as Abdal, Abdel, Abdil, Abdol, Abdool, or Abdoul; ar, عبد ال, ) is the most frequent transliteration of the combination of the Arabic word '' Abd'' (, meaning "Servant") and the definite prefix '' al / el'' (, mea ...

, ?–1991–? *

Najibullah Sahu Najibullah ( ar , نجيب الله ) is a male Muslim given name, composed of the elements ''Najib'' and ''Allah''. It means ''distinguished (servant) of God''. It may refer to: People *Mohammad Najibullah (1947–1996), President of Afghanistan ...

, ?–1992–? * Zabihullah Eltezam, ?–1993 *

Ghulam Mohammed Yailaqi Ghulam ( ar, غلام, ) is an Arabic word meaning ''servant'', ''assistant'', ''boy'', or ''youth''. It is used to describe young servants in paradise. It is also used to refer to slave-soldiers in the Abbasid, Ottoman, Safavid and to a lesser ...

, 1993 *

, 1993–1995 * Ehsanullah Ehsan, during Taliban era, 1996–1997 * Abdul Samad Sani, during Taliban era, 1997–? * Mohammad Ahmadi, during Taliban era, ?–2001 * Anwar ul-Haq Ahady, 2002–2004 * Noorullah Delwari, 2004–2007 * Abdul Qadir Fitrat, 2007–2011 * Noorullah Delwari, 2011–2014 * Khan Afzal Hadawal, acting, 2014–2015 *

, 2015–2019 * Wahidullah Nosher, acting, 2019–2019 *

, acting, 2019–2021 * Haji Mohammad Idris, acting, during Taliban era, August 2021 – October 2021 * Shakir Jalali, acting, during Taliban era, October 2021 – present

Seizure of US-based assets

DAB owned about US$7 billion in assets held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. After the 2021 Taliban seizure of power, a group of about 150 relatives of victims of the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

attempted to use a judgement from the

SDNY The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case citations, S.D.N.Y.) is a federal trial court whose geographic jurisdiction encompasses eight counties of New York State. Two of these are in New York City: New Y ...

cas
''Havlish v. Bin Laden''
to gain control of these assets, asserting that they were now legally the Taliban's and thus could be used to pay damages to 9/11 victims' families. After a period of deliberation, the

Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the 46th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 2021. Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who previously served as vice president under Barack Obama, took office following his victory ...

went along with the request, dividing the assets into two halves, one of which would be allocated to the plaintiffs as potential damages, and the other which would be used to set up a trust fund to "support the needs of the Afghan people" but which the Taliban government would remain barred from accessing. On 26 August 2022, a judge recommended to not award damages as the bank is "immune from jurisdiction" and that it would "acknowledge" the Taliban as the legitimate Afghan government.

References

External links

Da Afghanistan Bank

Official YouTube channel

@AFGCentralbank
- Official Twitter account, active post-August 30, 2021 {{Authority control

Banks of Afghanistan Banks established in 1939

1939 establishments in Afghanistan Regulation in Afghanistan