Da Afghanistan Bank

Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB) is Afghanistan's statutory central bank, established in 1939. Foreign reserve assets became inaccessible after the Taliban took Kabul in August 2021, but DAB's legal identity, Taliban influence, foreign custody and executive restrictions remain separate questions. The case tests the monetary and humanitarian consequences of reserve immobilisation without making the bank identical to the governing authority.

The freeze

DAB held about USD 7 billion of its reserves at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, with other assets in European and additional accounts. After the recognised government collapsed in August 2021, DAB lost access to major foreign-held reserves as questions of recognition, authority and US blocking rules converged. Aid reductions, correspondent disruption, cash shortages, drought, institutional disruption and reserve inaccessibility occurred together. The humanitarian and banking crisis cannot be assigned to one measure alone.

Foreign reserves are assets of the central bank held through named custodial and account relationships. They are not a single fund physically held in Kabul, nor are they ordinary fiscal revenue available to the government. DAB's inability to access one account did not transfer title to the custodian. Custody, legal ownership, authority to instruct a transfer and recognition of the person purporting to act for the bank each required a separate determination.

Executive Order 14064 and the Fund for the Afghan People

Executive Order 14064 blocked specified DAB property held in the United States and directed that transfers be licensed for the benefit of the Afghan people. In September 2022, about USD 3.5 billion was transferred to the Fund for the Afghan People. Other US-held assets remained subject to litigation. A February 2023 federal ruling rejected turnover on the grounds before it, including the legal distinction between DAB and the Taliban. The order, licence, transfer, custody and judgment-creditor claims were separate acts; none finally determined access to every Afghan reserve held abroad.

The Afghan Fund is a Swiss foundation with its own board and banking arrangements. DAB retains the beneficial interest in the transferred assets, while the Bank for International Settlements acts as custodian rather than trustee. The foundation's governance conditions were designed to prevent Taliban control and to preserve assets for monetary and macroeconomic purposes. That design does not make the foundation a substitute central bank or give it DAB's statutory regulatory powers.

Contestation

The humanitarian effect is contested and multi-causal. Reserve inaccessibility, the aid cut-off, banking disruption, drought, institutional capacity and Taliban policy changed together. The evidence does not support assigning all deprivation to one measure or treating reserve release as sufficient for monetary stabilisation. DAB's statute states formal independence. Its official site reported a Supreme Council meeting chaired by Noor Ahmad Agha in April 2026 and operations involving First Deputy Governor Sediqullah Khalid through July 2026. These are operator descriptions of de facto administration, not external recognition or proof of statutory independence. The entry therefore separates ownership, custody, access and control in the Afghanistan central bank reserve freeze (2021-present) and the wider debate over the Humanitarian cost of sanctions.

Policy proposals range from continued preservation to conditional release for defined central-bank functions. Assessing them requires evidence about governance safeguards, payment controls, bank supervision and correspondent access. Reserve access can support confidence and liquidity, but cannot by itself replace fiscal revenue, humanitarian assistance or a functioning domestic banking system.

See also

Afghanistan central bank reserve freeze (2021-present) · Central-bank reserve immobilisation · Fund for the Afghan People · Federal Reserve Bank of New York · Humanitarian cost of sanctions · Central-bank reserve immobilisation and confiscation · Financial warfare · Economic statecraft

Sources

• US President, Executive Order 14064, protecting certain DAB property (11 February 2022).
• US Treasury and State Department, establishment of the Afghan Fund (14 September 2022).
• Fund for the Afghan People, current governance and asset record.
• Da Afghanistan Bank, *Da Afghanistan Bank Law*.
• Da Afghanistan Bank, current institutional record (accessed 30 July 2026).