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The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and the Central Bank of Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on 2 October 2026 to cooperate on payment systems, financial technology, financial inclusion, credit information and regulatory enforcement. H.E. Khaled Mohamed Balama, CBUAE governor, and Mohammad Safwat Abdel Hamid Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, signed it.
Key Takeaways
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and the Central Bank of Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on 2 October 2026 covering payment systems, financial technology, financial inclusion, credit information systems and regulatory enforcement.
It was signed by CBUAE governor Khaled Mohamed Balama and Syrian governor Mohammad Safwat Abdel Hamid Raslan, and also covers banking supervision, licensing, consumer protection and climate-risk management.
The MoU sets a cooperation framework. No payment link, project, timeline or implementation step has been announced.
What the MoU covers
The agreement lists cooperation on payment systems, monetary policy, cash management and innovative financial technologies, alongside climate-risk management and sustainable finance, financial inclusion and financial literacy, credit information systems, and reporting and risk-management frameworks. It also covers banking supervision and regulation, licensing, regulatory enforcement and compliance, consumer protection, payment and transfer systems, and banking infrastructure development.
Balama said,
“The MoU reflects our shared interest in advancing cooperation in financial and regulatory areas, as part of efforts to support the resilience of the financial system.”
Raslan said
“It represents an important step towards deepening banking cooperation, and Syria attaches particular importance to the opportunities it offers to advance financial inclusion and build institutional capacity.”
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Syria’s banking sector is reopening
Arab News reports that Syria is expanding its banking sector and seeking foreign investment. In September, Raslan said foreign capital for new banks was expected to exceed $1 billion, and that seven regional delegations had expressed interest in establishing banks. Syria is also working to restore correspondent banking relationships and reconnect with international financial networks.
A Syrian-Emirati Investment Forum was held in Damascus in May 2026, covering tourism, real estate, agriculture, energy, aviation, logistics, healthcare and technology.
What’s next
The MoU doesn’t name a project, a payment link, a timeline or any UAE institution that would take part. Whether it leads to anything concrete in payment systems or fintech, as opposed to supervisory and licensing cooperation, is the detail to watch. The CBUAE signed a currency swap renewal with Egypt’s central bank on 29 September and a pair of MoUs with Morocco’s central bank on 3 October, so this is one of three central-bank agreements it announced within a week.
FAQs
What is a central bank MoU?
A memorandum of understanding is a non-binding agreement setting out areas where two central banks intend to cooperate, such as supervision, payments or fintech. It usually doesn’t commit either side to a specific project or launch date.
Does the MoU create a payment link between the UAE and Syria?
No. It lists payment systems and payment and transfer systems as areas of cooperation, but no link, platform or launch has been announced.
What areas does the UAE-Syria MoU cover?
Payment systems, monetary policy, cash management, financial technology, climate-risk management, financial inclusion and literacy, credit information systems, banking supervision, licensing, regulatory enforcement, consumer protection and banking infrastructure development.
Who signed the MoU?
CBUAE governor Khaled Mohamed Balama and Central Bank of Syria governor Mohammad Safwat Abdel Hamid Raslan, on 2 October 2026.
Editor’s Take: This is a wide cooperation framework with no named deliverable: it covers nearly every central-bank function, from supervision and licensing to payments and credit information, without committing to a project or date. The strongest context is on the Syrian side.
Syria is trying to attract more than $1 billion of foreign capital into new banks and to restore correspondent banking relationships, which makes licensing, enforcement and credit-information expertise from an established regulator a concrete need. The payment systems and fintech items are the vaguest part, listed with no platform or scheme named, unlike the Philippines and Morocco agreements, which name instant payment platforms. No UAE bank or fintech has been named as a participant.
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