Abu Dhabi Banks and financial institutions operating in the UAE will do a full due diligence on Sunday in compliance with a central bank circular to ascertain whether Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad or 139 Syrian officials including al-Assad, his wife Asma and other family members named in the circular held any assets with them or had made investments through them, industry sources told Gulf News.
The central bank’s move is aimed at raising pressure on President al-Assad to stop a military crackdown on a popular uprising.
“We will duly comply with the directives of the central bank and do a full due diligence by the timeline set by the central bank. We will be submitting all details to the central bank should we find any of the persons named in the circular holding assets with us or had made transactions through our bank,” Bank of Baroda’s Chief Executive – GCC Operations, K.V. Ramamoorthy told Gulf News by telephone.
“We will submit our report on Monday,” Ramamoorthy added.
The central bank on Thursday gave banks and financial institutions three days to submit details of any assets or transactions made by the Syrian officials. The central bank called for an immediate search for any accounts, deposits or investments owned by the persons and institutions in question and for the central bank to be informed of any credit facilities, safe deposit boxes or financial transfers.
“There will be full compliance with the central bank directive. We will check the customer base and if we find anyone from the forbidden list had transacted through us, we will make a declaration to the apex bank and severe our relationship with that client,” said a dealer at a Dubai-based brokerage who wished not to be named.
In May, the EU froze the assets or imposed travel bans on more than 120 senior Syrian officials in an effort to isolate Assad’s government and press it to carry out a ceasefire and political transition plan drawn up by a U.N.-Arab League envoy.
The United States has frozen Syrian assets and banned U.S. businesses from dealings with Syria, adding to broader U.S. measures against Syria which had been in place since 2004.
Arab League states last November also decided on the economic sanctions against Syria, the toughest ever on a member state. They included a suspension of dealings with the Syrian central bank and its state-owned Commercial Bank, and of trade agreements and bank transactions, Gulf News reported.
