An official source in the Yemen Banks Association has expressed the association’s denunciation of the decisions issued by the Central Bank in Aden Thursday to cancel dealing in printed banknotes before 2016 and to stop dealing with a number of banks.
In a statement to the official Yemeni News Agency (Saba) in Sana’a, the source described these decisions as “provocative and escalatory measures” that lack a sense of responsibility.
The source confirmed that these escalatory decisions and measures would cause serious repercussions whose harm and negative impact would not be limited to the banking sector alone but would extend to affect all units of economic activity throughout the country, in addition to harming the citizen’s livelihood and social peace in Yemen.
The source pointed out that regardless of the justifications given by the bank for making such decisions, the economic and geopolitical reality that the country is experiencing in all its provinces from east to west and from north to south confirm beyond any doubt that these decisions and the steps and procedures that follow will have devastating negative effects on the national economy and the entire Yemeni financial and banking system, including the Central Bank of Aden itself.
“These decisions will have no effect other than creating more rifts, increasing the financial and monetary division in the structure of the monetary authority, paralyzing its effectiveness, weakening its regulatory and supervisory role, and making it completely incapable of managing monetary policy,” the source said.
The source added, “Persistence and insistence on implementing these ill-considered decisions will only lead to more financial burdens that burden the Yemeni banking sector and the people in all parts of the country.”
The Yemen Banks Association appealed to various professional organizations, civil society, and international bodies interested in the Yemeni economic file to take a responsible position on this escalation, stressing that these decisions target the national economy and society as a whole.