New Kabul Bank is a bank in Afghanistan that has its main branch in the capital city of Kabul. It was established in 2004 as the Kabul Bank, the first private bank in Afghanistan. After corruption and scandals it was re-established in 2011 as the New Kabul Bank.
It is the main bank used to pay the salaries of the national army and security police forces. The bank provides facilities to maintain accounts in Current, Savings Bank, and Fixed deposits; and offers its consumers branch and automated teller machine services. The bank is under the supervision of the Central Bank of Afghanistan (Da Afghanistan Bank−DAB), the General Directorate of Treasury, and the Afghanistan Ministry of Finance (MOF).
History
Founding in 2004
An advertisement for the Bakht Account (Lucky Account)
The Kabul Bank was established in 2004.
Kabul Bank claims that accounts can be opened and maintained in afghani, U.S. dollars and euro. Kabul Bank claims that it is connected throughout the globe with SWIFT facility, which enables fund transfer for its customers. The bank has correspondent relationship with seven international banks situated in Germany, China, Iran, Tajikistan, Saudi Arabia and India.
Corruption scandal
Kabul Bank was badly shaken and almost collapsed in 2011, in one of "the worst banking scandals in history", according to The Guardian newspaper.[1] In late 2012, according to the Los Angeles Times, independent investigators and journalists uncovered widespread corruption in Kabul Bank.[2]The New York Times, in 2012, headlines indicate "Audit Says Kabul Bank Began as 'Ponzi Scheme'" following investigation and judicial action in the aftermath of the Bank's crisis and scandal.[3]
In 2010, it was disclosed that its Chairman Sherkhan Farnood and other insiders were spending the bank's US$1 billion for their own personal lavish style living and lending money under the table to family, relatives and friends. The bank scandal also involved members of Afghan President Karzai's family, including his brother Mahmood Karzai. In September 2010, one of the principal owners of the bank said that depositors had withdrawn $180 million in two days and predicted a "revolution" in the country's financial system unless the Afghan government and the United States moved quickly to help stabilize the bank.[4][5] In November 2010, reports appeared that Farnood and chief executive Khalilullah Frozi both had been sacked from duties;[6] as of early 2011 both were effectively under house arrest and could not leave the country,[7] and in July 2011 both were formally arrested and detained in Kabul.[8] DAB stated in February 2011, it would seek to sell Kabul Bank within three years once it was rehabilitated,[9] but both the International Monetary Fund and US officials subsequently pressed for a rapid wind down of the institution.[10] A USAID inspector general report estimated that fraudulent loans diverted $850 million to bank insiders.[8] By October 2011, more than a year after the government seized control, officials had recovered less than 10 percent of the nearly $1 billion that went missing.[11]
Bank run and panic in 2010
After only six years in operation, in 2010 there was a panic of customers seeking to withdraw their savings from the bank. Despite nearly $1 billion in U.S. taxpayers' funded assistance in the form of Afghan government salaries deposited into Kabul Bank, Kabul Bank was on the brink of collapse and mobs of customers massed outside of bank locations trying to get their deposits out of the bank with limited luck.
Despite Kabul Bank's near collapse in 2010 during the corruption allegations, Kabul Bank claims it is significant to Afghanistan's internal security and stability because it is the vehicle used to pay, largely with money supplied by the United States government, as many as 300,000 Afghan government employees, mostly military and police, who are key to plans to rebuild Afghanistan's capacity to deal with its ongoing Taliban-led insurgency.[6] President Karzai's brother, Mahmood Karzai, is reported to have played a significant role in the bank scandal, and is alleged to have received millions of dollars in loans from Kabul Bank. He was later alleged to be under investigation by a U.S. Federal grand jury and U.S. tax authorities, including the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for tax evasion allegations. Canada's Maclean's magazine reported that Mahmoud Karzai was being investigated for racketeering, extortion and tax evasion as a result of connections to the bank and Hamid Karzai.[2][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
During the bank scandal and panic in September 2010, hundreds of Afghans, including many civil servants and their families, gathered outside Kabul Bank offices in the capital and elsewhere in Afghanistan. Long lines formed of depositors hoping to withdrawal some or all of their money. Afghan police beat back mobs at the Kabul Bank worried their money would be lost according to The Washington Post. Panic set in among many depositors according to reports by The New York Times.[19]
On 27 December 2010, a suicide car bomber killed at least three Afghans, including one policeman, as he targeted police officers who lined up to withdraw their salaries in front of Kabul Bank in central Kandahar; the midday explosion also wounded 16 policemen and five civilians, officials said.[20]
2011 aftermath of panic
On 19 February 2011, at least 38 people (including 13 policemen) were killed during an insurgent raid on a branch of Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar, and at least three militants were killed, officials said. Three suicide bombers reportedly entered the bank and detonated themselves, and fighting between insurgents and security forces continued for over four hours; President Hamid Karzai and a NATOInternational Security Assistance Force spokesman condemned the attack, which was the deadliest in the country since June 2010.[21]
In its July 2011 review of the Kabul Bank scandal and its aftermath, international non-governmental organization (NGO) Transparency International raised repeated concerns about problems of corruption in Afghanistan and its impact on the economy, business investment, security and civil society.[22]
2010 depositor panic and aftermath
In early 2010, the Washington Post reported that the Kabul Bank played a part in "a crony capitalism that enriches politically connected insiders and dismays the Afghan populace."[23][24]
At the beginning of September, Frozi, one of the two largest shareholders of Kabul Bank, said reports indicating that the institution had lost as much as $300 million were overstated. But he predicted that if Afghan depositors continued to withdraw their money at the current rate, Kabul Bank would almost certainly collapse, undermining confidence in the nascent financial system the Afghans have been trying to build with American help. "If this goes on, we won’t survive", Mr. Frozi said in an interview. "If people lose trust in the banks, there will be a revolution in the financial system."
Afghan leaders promised to guarantee deposits in an attempt to arrest the panic, which began at the end of August 2010 when the country's top banking officials demanded the resignations of both Frozi and Farnood.[4] "The government has decided that there will be an audit firm that will be coming to audit not only Kabul Bank accounts but also other private banks in Afghanistan", an Afghan presidential spokesman announced in late October. Earlier in the month, the government also froze assets held by some of Kabul Bank's owners even as the central bank governor said it was solvent and had the backing of Karzai's administration.[5] U.S.-educated economist Hamidullah Farooqi, a former Karzai minister and chairman of the Afghanistan International Chamber of Commerce, said Afghanistan received a "massive wake-up call" from the crisis, further stating: "It's not just a lack of capacity in our institutions, there is a lack of laws and a lack of accountability, which is much more serious. It's a case of the blind leading the blind. They are too young, they are babies."[6]
Mahmood Karzai is one of the brothers of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a seven-percent shareholder in the bank. In a telephone interview with the Boston Globe in September 2010, he said: "America should do something."[25] In October, the Washington Post reported that Mahmood Karzai could soon be indicted for tax evasion in the U.S., though he denied the charges, telling the newspaper: "I'm very clean", and insisting his only interest was "rebuilding Afghanistan."[5][16]
In mid-January 2011, acting chief financial officer and other Pakistani employees of Kabul Bank fled to Pakistan, apparently out of fear for their lives and possible arrest, though some said they were being made scapegoats for powerful shareholders. Afghan authorities also called in several bank managers, including foreigners, for questioning and detained some in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province in connection with illicit transfers of bank funds.[7]
In early February 2011, DAB Governor Abdul Qadir Fitrat said the central bank would impose stricter rules on banks wanting to handle about US$1.5 billion worth of salaries for government and security officials, which until now has been done by Kabul Bank. Fitrat also told Reuters the total amount of money at risk over suspected irregularities at Kabul Bank amounted to $579 million, almost twice the figure estimated when the bank's troubles first surfaced. Fitrat dismissed concerns that it faced liquidation, saying it would be privately owned again within three years. "Kabulbank is stabilised, it has enough cash at its disposal and the central bank is trying to rehabilitate the bank and then at some point sell it to potential buyers in two or three years," Fitrat told Reuters.[9] In early July 2011, Fitrat resigned as head of the central bank after fleeing to the United States, claiming his life had been threatened and that he was being made a scapegoat for politically connected individuals.[8]
After a mid-February 2011 visit by Neal Wolin, the U.S. deputy Treasury secretary, the Afghan finance ministry said that weak international support had exacerbated the crisis. "Afghan and US officials agreed that (the crisis)... was compounded by the erroneous audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and ineffective international technical assistance and supervision", the ministry said. However, Wolin pressed the government to rapidly place the lender into receivership, echoing calls made by a previous International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation. "The deputy secretary... stressed the need for the Afghan government to take swift and decisive action to ensure a credible, effective resolution of issues related to Kabul Bank," the U.S. embassy said in statement.[10] Kabul Bank was put into receivership following the scandal and a new bank set up, but only $70 million of fraudulent loans it granted have so far been recovered, with criminal investigations ongoing. In October 2011, Afghanistan's parliament approved a $51 million payment to DAB as part of a planned compensation package over its multi-million-dollar bailout; the payment is part of a package of government measures agreed with the IMF to secure a new loan. Afghanistan has been without an IMF program since the Kabul Bank failure, but the IMF announced that it is moving ahead on a new $129 million loan in the wake of the government's reform promises, with a new program expected to be submitted to the IMF executive board for approval in November 2011.[26]
At the end of June 2011, the Washington Post reported that Farnood and Frozi used fake names, forged documents, fictitious companies and secret records as part of an elaborate ruse to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to shareholders and top Afghan officials, including President Karzai's brother Mahmood and Mohammed Fahim, the country's first vice president. Both Farnood and Frozi were arrested in Kabul and held without charge, even though Afghanistan's attorney general said the evidence against them was "quite clear". Without a successful resolution of Kabul Bank's problems, one senior U.S. official said Afghanistan could face "the collapse of the banking sector."[27] As of October 2011, neither man had yet been charged with a crime, but Deputy Attorney General Enayatullah Nazari said the government intends to bring them to court.
"A crime has happened", Nazari said. "They will go to the court whether they manage to secure the money or not". Authorities loosened the terms of their detention and provided them with a security detail to go to a bank office on workdays and on occasion to fancy restaurants and hotels for what Nazari described as work meetings.[11]
Depositor losses from collapse
With regard to public sector corruption in Afghanistan and the loss of nearly U.S. $1 billion in U.S. taxpayers' funded foreign assistance to Afghanistan in the form of U.S.-supplied Afghan government and Afghan military and police salaries deposited into Kabul Bank, The New Yorker Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR) and others, have reported that widespread corruption, ponzi schemes, fraudulent loans, mass looting, insider loans to fake and bogus companies run by family and friends, and other corrupted practices, were undertaken by a small group of Afghan insiders (less than 12 people), apparently linked to Mahmoud Karzai, President Hamid Karzai and Ahmed Wali Karzai.[28] This resulted in nearly $1 billion ($900 million) in Kabul Bank's deposits seemingly vanishing into Dubai and other off-shore locations and unknown offshore bank accounts and tax havens. Hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars were often smuggled and flown out of Afghanistan secretly stashed in bags and airline food trays.[29][30][31]
2012 anti-corruption report and reform efforts
On 28 November 2012, the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee published its report and declared in a news conference that US$5 billion, including $400 million the Kabul Bank's shareholders, were illegally transferred abroad. About 22 people are accused of embezzlement in the case, and their trial started. At three hearings, 18 people, including Sher Khan Farnood and Khalil Ferozi, appeared before the court to defend themselves. Some $935 million of the bank assets was transferred abroad through various systems and $825 million are needed to bail out the bank. The Afghan government will have to pay 5–6% of its GDP to save the bank, which would be a huge blow to the country's economy.[32]
Since 2011, the Karzai Government has rejected banking oversight and reform efforts by the United States in the wake of the Kabul Bank scandal and collapse according to reports by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in 2013–14.[33][34][35]
Banking experts, economists and humanitarian aid officials have expressed serious concern about this development given Kabul Bank's large and historic dependence on U.S. taxpayers' funding of bank deposits via payments of the Afghan National Army soldiers, police and Afghanistan's civil service employees who are largely paid with billions of dollars in U.S. aid to the Karzai government and to Afghanistan from the U.S. Congress, U.S. Treasury and ultimately U.S. taxpayer.
The U.S. government has found anti-corruption efforts in Afghanistan in the wake of the Kabul Bank crisis as deeply troubling, including the banking sector, according to reports by the Washington Post in 2012 and SIGAR.[36]
2014 murder of IMF official and executive sentences
In January 2014, the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) representative Wabel Abdallah, who assisted in the Kabul Bank crisis aftermath, was murdered by suicide bombers and gunmen in Kabul along with some 21 others in a high-profile attack that the Taliban said they undertook.[37] Abdallah headed the IMF's office in Afghanistan since 2008.
Following the departure of Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in 2014, President Ashraf Ghani re-opened efforts to bring former Kabul Bank officials involved in the Kabul Bank Crisis to justice, extend and enforce prison sentences for those previously convicted, and seek to recover hundreds of millions of U.S. and Afghan taxpayers' dollars in funds stolen or lost by embezzlement, corruption, and fraud by the bank's insiders.[38] Ghani vowed to seek to continue the investigation of the Kabul Bank crisis and fight corruption in Afghanistan. In October 2014, the Ghani Administration in Kabul reportedly officially re-opened the investigation.[39]
New company
After corruption and scandals it was re-established in 2011 as the New Kabul Bank.
In 2011, 38 customers at the bank's branch in Jalalabad were killed by a Taliban bombing.[40] Fighting with security forces lasted four hours, and four of the attackers were killed. Two men were later charged for the attack and executed in June 2011. A third person was sentenced to prison.[41]
In September 2010, the Afghan Central Bank said it was prepared to provide loans to the Kabul Bank, "if it requests".[42] After the bailout by the government, by 2015, authorities were inviting bids to privatize the new bank.[43] In 2016, Afghanistan's Joint-Stock Company offered to buy New Kabul Bank for $31 million.[44]Pakistan's MCB Bank also made a bid, as New Kabul Bank was to be privatized in October 2018.[45]
In April 2015, the Islamic State or an associated group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the entrance of a New Kabul Bank branch in Jalalabad, where government workers waited in line to collect salaries. 34 people were killed at least, and 125 injured.[40] In June 2017, a Taliban suicide bomber killed 29 people at a Kabul Bank branch in the Helmand province.[46]
In August 2017, there were reports of long lines and slow services at the New Kabul Bank branch in the Paktika province, where it was the only bank in the region.[47] That month, a suicide bomber targeted the Kabul Bank branch entrance close to the US embassy, resulting in five reported deaths. The Taliban claimed responsibility.[48]
2021 bank run
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(August 2021)
The New Kabul Bank suffered a bank run in the leadup to the 2021 fall of Afghanistan, as panicked citizens sought to withdraw their life savings ahead of anticipated disruption under Taliban rule.
The government of Afghanistan is currently disputed following the effective collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan during the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces on 15 August 2021 and the subsequent re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which now exercises de facto control over most of the country. On 7 September 2021 the Taliban officials in de facto control of most of Afghanistan announced a new interim government headed by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund as Prime Minister. The government is subject to the oversight of the Taliban's Supreme Leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada. As of 8 September 2021, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has not yet been formally recognized as the de jure government of Afghanistan by any other country. The representatives appointed by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan continue to represent the country at the United Nations. These representatives have refused to recognize the Taliban appointed government and have urged other countries to not recognize this government either.
Hamid Karzai is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from December 2004 to September 2014. He previously served as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration from December 2001 to July 2002. He is the chief (khān) of the Popalzai Durrani tribe of Pashtuns in Kandahar Province.
Da Afghanistan Bank is the central bank of Afghanistan. It regulates all banking and monetary transactions in Afghanistan. Established in 1939, the bank is wholly government-owned. It is active in developing policies to promote financial inclusion and a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion.
Mohammad Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai is an Afghan former politician, academic, and economist who served as the president of Afghanistan from September 2014 until August 2021, when his government was overthrown by the Taliban.
Relations between Afghanistan and the United States began in 1921 under the leaderships of King Amanullah Khan and President Warren G. Harding, respectively. The first contact between the two nations occurred further back in the 1830s when the first recorded person from the United States explored Afghanistan. The United States government foreign aid program provided about $500 million in aid for economic development; the aid ended before the 1978 Saur Revolution. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was a turning point in the Cold War, when the United States started to financially support the Afghan resistance. The country, under both the Carter and Reagan administrations committed $3 billion dollars in financial and diplomatic support and along with Pakistan also rendering critical support to the anti-Soviet Mujahideen forces. Beginning in 1980, the United States began admitting thousands of Afghan refugees for resettlement, and provided money and weapons to the Mujahideen through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The USSR withdrew its troops in 1989.
Presidential elections were held in Afghanistan on 20 August 2009. The election resulted in victory for incumbent Hamid Karzai, who received 49.67% of the vote, while his main rival Abdullah Abdullah finished second with 30.59% of the vote.
Abdullah Abdullah is a Pashtun Afghan politician who led the High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) from May 2020 until August 2021, when the Afghan government was overthrown by the Taliban. The council had been established to facilitate peace talks between the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban insurgents. Abdullah served as the Chief Executive of Afghanistan from September 2014 to March 2020, and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from December 2001 to April 2005. Prior to that, he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance, working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He worked as an ophthalmologist and medical doctor in the 1980s.
Abdul Qayum Karzai was an Afghan politician and businessman. He was the elder brother of former President Hamid Karzai. His brothers also include Mahmoud Karzai and the assassinated Ahmed Wali Karzai, both embroiled by allegations of widespread corruption in Afghanistan and other serious charges. Abdul Qayum was a businessman in the United States before entering into Afghan politics. He served as a member of the Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the National Assembly of Afghanistan. He retired for health reasons and had "reportedly been involved in backchannel peace diplomacy with the Taliban through Saudi Arabia."
The Karzai administration was the government of Afghanistan under President Hamid Karzai, who became the head of state of Afghanistan in December 2001 after the Taliban government was overthrown. Karzai was appointed at the 2002 Loya Jirga as the Interim President of the Afghan Transitional Administration. After the 2004 Afghan presidential election, he became the President of Afghanistan.
Amrullah Saleh is an Afghan politician who served as the first vice president of Afghanistan from February 2020 to August 2021, and acting interior minister from 2018 to 2019. He was the head of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) from 2004 to 2010.
Mahmood Karzai, also spelled Mahmud Karzai, or Mahmoud Karzai is an Afghan businessman. He was the third of the six children and son of a prominent political figure, Abdul Ahad Karzai who was a member of the Afghan National Assembly during King Zahir Shah's time. Mahmood Karzai is currently the Chairman and President of the AFCO International LLC. He is the elder brother of the former president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai and he is also the brother of Ahmed Wali Karzai, a politician in Afghanistan who served as Chairman of the Kandahar Provincial Council and was killed by his bodyguard in Afghanistan.
Sherkhan Farnood was an Afghan banker, Chairman of Kabul Bank until late 2010, which is Afghanistan's largest private financial institution with over 1 million customers. Farnood held 28.16% of the shares in the Kabul Bank. He also owned Pamir Airways, in partnership with Khalilullah Fruzi/Frozi, Mohammed Fahim and possibly others. According to media reports, by November 2010 Da Afghanistan Bank insisted both Farnood and Kabul Bank chief executive Frozi had been removed from bank management;. As of early 2011 both were effectively under house arrest and could not leave the country.
Events from the year 2011 in Afghanistan.
2003 in Afghanistan. A list of notable incidents in Afghanistan during 2003
Corruption in Afghanistan is a widespread and growing problem in Afghan society. Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks the country in 162nd place out of 180 countries. The 180 countries of the Index are scored on a scale from 0 to 100 according to the perceived corruption in the public sector, and then ranked by their score. Afghanistan's 2023 ranking is based on a score of 20. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90, the average score was 43, and the worst score was 11. For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among the countries of the Asia Pacific region was 85, the average score was 45 and the lowest score was 17. In this region, only North Korea had a lower score than Afghanistan. The Taliban significantly tackled corruption upon taking power in 2021; Afghanistan was ranked in 150th place in the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, following a ranking of 174th in 2021.
Abdul Qadir Fitrat was the governor of Da Afghanistan Bank from 2007 to 2011. He fled to the United States and was wanted by the Government of Afghanistan. He was residing among the large Afghan-American community in Northern Virginia until his death in April 2024.
Ajmal Ahmady is an Afghan-American economist and politician who formerly served as the Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Afghanistan, Da Afghanistan Bank, the Acting Minister of Commerce and Industry of Afghanistan, the Senior Economic Advisor to the President of Afghanistan, and represented Afghanistan on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was a presidential republic that ruled Afghanistan from 2004 to 2021. The state was established to replace the Afghan interim (2001–2002) and transitional (2002–2004) administrations, which were formed after the 2001 United States invasion of Afghanistan that had toppled the partially recognized Taliban-ruled Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. However, on 15 August 2021, the country was recaptured by the Taliban, which marked the end of the 2001–2021 war, the longest war in US history. This led to the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, led by President Ashraf Ghani, and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate under the control of the Taliban. While the United Nations still recognizes the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, this toppled regime controls no portion of the country today, nor does it operate in exile; it effectively no longer exists. The Islamic Emirate is the de facto ruling government. The US–Taliban deal, signed on 29 February 2020 in Qatar, was one of the critical events that caused the collapse of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). Following the deal, the US dramatically reduced the number of air attacks and deprived the ANSF of a critical edge in fighting the Taliban insurgency, leading to the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
The war in Afghanistan ended with the Taliban victorious when the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. The aftermath has been characterized by marked change in the social and political order of Afghanistan as Taliban took over the country once again after the fall of Kabul in 2021.
Democracy in Afghanistan has been severely limited and characterized by short, unstable historical periods since the formation of the contemporary state of Afghanistan in the 20th century. Following the rise of power of Ghazi Amanullah Khan in 1919, the first elements of a democratic government in the country began to emerge, with the formation of a constitution and increased civil liberties. Amanullah's political reforms resulted in his overthrow and for much of the rest of the 20th century, until 1964, there was limited democratization in the country. With the establishment of a bicameral national legislature in 1964 by King Zahir Shah, political parties began to form; however, none of these reforms were lasting after Zahir Shah's removal from power in 1973 and the formation of an autocratic Afghanistan republic.
↑ Wall Street Journal,(16 February 2011), "Grand Jury Investigates Karzai Brother U.S. Federal Probe Risks Worsening Relations With the Afghan President; Mahmood Karzai Hires a Washington Lawyer"
↑ Gutcher, Lianne (19 July 2011). "Afghanistan's anti-corruption efforts thwarted at every turn". The Guardian. Transparency International has raised concerns about the impact of corruption on the banking and financial sector in Afghanistan and its controversial links to the public sector and public officials.
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