Grundberg calls for postponement of bank license revocation decision, urges negotiations on economic file
Yemen Monitor/Newsroom
The UN envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, on Friday called on the Presidential Leadership Council and the Yemeni government to postpone the decision to withdraw bank licenses until the end of August.
This came in a letter he sent to the head of the Presidential Leadership Council, President Rashad al-Alim, of which Yemen Monitor obtained a copy.
In his letter, Grundberg urged the Presidential Council and the Yemeni government to “engage in UN-sponsored negotiations to discuss economic developments in the country,” noting that he is in contact with the Houthis in this regard.
Grundberg said: “I appreciate the economic grievances that the Yemeni government has endured, the most prominent of which is the suspension of crude oil exports.”
He pointed out that “the decisions issued regarding the banks will harm the Yemeni economy, corrupt the livelihoods of ordinary Yemenis throughout the country, and may lead to the risk of escalation that could expand to the military field.”
In the first government response, the Presidential Leadership Council announced, during an emergency meeting, its adherence to a clear agenda to participate in any dialogue with the Houthis under UN auspices on the economic file, stipulating the resumption of oil exports, the unification of the national currency, and the cancellation of all Houthi measures against the banking sector.
The Central Bank of Yemen had canceled the banking licenses of a group of local banks that failed to comply with the decision to transfer their main headquarters to the temporary capital, Aden, which means stopping the “SWIFT code” and stopping financial transfers through it from abroad.
The six banks are “Bank of Tadhamon, Bank of Yemen and Kuwait, Comprehensive Bank of Yemen and Bahrain, Bank Al-Amal for Microfinance, Al-Karimi Islamic Bank for Microfinance, and the International Bank of Yemen” after refusing to transfer their main headquarters from Sana’a to Aden.
This comes days after the escalation of the Houthi group on the tongue of its leader, who threatened to target Saudi Arabia if the decisions of the Central Bank were not reversed.
The United Nations had said that the different directives issued by the central banks in Aden and Sana’a have led to noticeable disturbances in the financial and banking sectors, and indicate a significant escalation in retaliatory financial measures that affect the lives of Yemeni families and the already collapsed economy of the country.
