Syria's government is planning to replace central bank ​governor Abdelkader Husriyeh with Safwat Raslan, head of the Syrian Development ​Fund, according to two ​people in the Syrian banking sector.

Raslan, who fled Syria to Germany as a refugee ⁠during the war and obtained citizenship there, is a former banker. Raslan and Husriyeh did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Syria's banking sector has been seeking to ​reconnect with global ‌finance after ⁠the fall ⁠of Bashar al-Assad, whose crackdown on protests in 2011 triggered a ​14-year civil war and sweeping Western sanctions ‌that isolated Syrian banks and ⁠the central bank.

Most of those sanctions have since been lifted, but the country's banks remain relatively isolated from the global financial system, hampering efforts to attract funds to boost the economy and support post-war reconstruction.

Husriyeh was appointed central bank governor by President Ahmed al-Sharaa in April 2025. During his tenure, Syria carried out its ‌first international bank transfer via the SWIFT ⁠system since the start of the war.

Raslan ​was appointed director-general of the Syrian Development Fund in 2025. The fund, launched after Assad's ouster, was set up ​as a ‌state-backed vehicle to mobilise money for reconstruction ⁠and development projects.

(Reporting by ​Timour Azhari in Riyadh Editing by Ros Russell)