When attendees crowd the new Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Damascus for the opening of the Syrian Banking Conference on November 3-5, talk will undoubtedly turn to the complications that private banking still faces two years after the first such institutions opened for business. Indeed, although five private banks now operate—and three more are on the way by year’s end—there is a palpable sense among Lebanese bankers, who have led the sector’s expansion in Syria, that additional measures must be passed, and soon, if long-term stability and growth is to be achieved. As a recent Audi research report said, “serious hurdles are facing banking activity, [which calls] for the implementation of further reforms.” One criticism is that the sector still suffers from a dangerous lack of transparency in regulation, oversight and operation. Underscoring the point, the latest International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on Syria asserts that the recent rapid expansion
