The financial web connecting Afghanistan, the US, and Switzerland

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

What happens when a country's foreign reserves are stored in another country, and then part of that is run by a third? No, it's not the start of a bad joke. It's the story of Afghanistan, the U.S., and Switzerland.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:12.0	This is the indicator from planet money, I'm Whalen Wong.
0:14.8	And I'm Paddy Hirsch.
0:16.2	When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August of 2021, they gained control over every branch
0:21.6	of government and all of its related assets.
0:24.7	With the exception of one, the Afghan Central Bank's foreign reserve account, totaling a whopping
0:30.4	$9 billion.
0:32.4	Those reserves were built up by previous Afghan governments and kept in banks in the US
0:36.8	and Europe.
0:38.0	But when the Taliban took power, the reserves were frozen.
0:41.5	The US refused to recognize the Afghan government and by extension denied the Afghan Central
0:47.0	Bank access to its own holdings, which means that for the last year, Afghanistan's foreign
0:52.5	reserves have been in limbo.
0:54.5	Until earlier this month, when the US government announced that half of the reserves kept in
0:58.3	the US, it's like $3.5 billion, will be sent to a fund in Switzerland for the benefit
1:04.2	the US says of the Afghan people.
1:06.4	So, on today's show, the Afghan Central Bank reserves, what they are, where they are,
1:11.9	and why the Afghans can't have them.
1:13.8	Or not on the Taliban's terms, at least.
1:15.8	That's coming up after the break.
1:22.7	This message comes from an PR sponsor, Lincoln Financial.
1:25.9	Sure, you could invest in something that says it will go to the moon, but what about a plan
	...

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