Sabrine is the first female governor of the Syrian central bank in its more than 70-year history.
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Maysaa Sabrine, once deputy governor of Syria’s central bank, to lead the institution – the first woman to do so in its more than 70-year history, a senior Syrian official said.
With more than 15 years of experience in this field, Sabrine is a senior central bank official focused primarily on the supervision of the country’s banking sector.
A master in accounting from Damascus University and a certified public accountant, Sabrine has been a member of the board of directors at the Damascus Stock Exchange since December 2018, representing the central bank. She also served as deputy governor and head of the Office Control Division at the bank, according to the bank’s official website.
Sabrine replaces Mohammed Issam Hazime, who was appointed governor in 2021 by then-President Bashar al-Assad and remained in office after al-Assad was ousted by a lightning rebel offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). on December 8.
Since the rebels seized power, the bank has taken steps to liberalize an economy that was heavily controlled by the state, including scrapping the need for prior approvals for imports and exports and tighter controls on the use of foreign currency.
But Syria and the bank itself remain under heavy sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western powers.
The bank has also taken stock of the country’s assets following the fall of al-Assad and a brief spate of robberies that saw Syrian currency stolen but key vaults left untouched.
The vault holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its civil war in 2011, the sources said, but foreign currency reserves had shrunk from about $18 billion before the war to about $200 million, they said.
Sabrine is the second woman to be appointed by the new Syrian administration, headed by de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Earlier this month, Aisha al-Dibs was appointed as the head of the Office of Women’s Affairs under the Syrian interim government.
