Maysaa Sabrine Makes History as First Woman to Lead Syria’s Central Bank

Maysaa Sabrine became the first woman appointed as governor of Syria’s Central Bank, an important milestone in its 70-year history. Sabrine has had more than 15 years of experience in the financial sector as deputy governor. This move by Sabrine comes at a time when recent developments had seen the newly elected country leadership vow to reform the banking system and economy.

A certified public accountant with a master’s in accounting from Damascus University, Sabrine has played an important role in the activities of the central bank, as she has served on the board of the Damascus Securities Exchange since 2018 and overseen different banking functions.

Sabrine succeeds Mohammed Issam Hazime who was appointed as governor in 2021. Hazime stayed in the governorship after the overthrow of the President Bashar al-Assad government, which was toppled in December due to a rebel attack by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance of various groups.

It followed this regime’s collapse, to modernize the Syrian economy: remove all impediments to easing restriction such as taking away the obligation for preapproval for imports, exports, relaxing controls over the use of the hard foreign currency. Although it is facing severe sanctions in the hands of the United States and the nations of the Western world.

Although the post-conflict valuation of Syria’s financial assets took place, its central bank’s vaults that contain nearly 26 tonnes of gold remain relatively untouched; foreign reserves in the country have, however fallen dramatically from a reported $18 billion to merely $200 million today.

Sabrine’s appointment is part of a broader overhaul within Syria’s new government, led by de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, and includes the latest appointment of Aisha al-Dibs to lead the Women’s Affairs Office.