For
Syria at UN,
No Bank for 7
Months,
Controller
Projects "Good
News"
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 19,
updated -- For
seven months
Syria's
Mission to the
UN has not had
a bank account
in the United
States.
Its UN
delegation
complained
Thursday that
six months
ago, it wrote
to Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon asking
him either to
help Syria
open an
account with
the UN Federal
Credit Union
"as others
have," or to
require the US
as host
country to
make one of
its banks open
the account.
UN
Controller
Maria Eugenia
Casar on
Thursday told
the Syria
delegation
that
"hopefully
tomorrow"
there would be
"good news."
She said there
was a "very
important
meeting
between the
host country
and the banks"
and that she
has been
working
"closely with
the PR."
It was
not
immediately
clear if she
meant Syrian
Permanent
Representative
Bashar
Ja'afari or US
Ambassador
Susan Rice.
The UN
Controller
added that she
has been
"talking with
the
regulators,"
which seems
strange -- is
it the bank
regulators,
the Federal
Reserve and
Office of the
Comptroller of
the Currency,
which have
advised US
banks not to
allow the
Syrian mission
to open an
account?
If so,
why would the
federal credit
union
regulator be
any different?
Or as
Syria
complained
Thursday, has
it been the US
State
Department
blocking
Syria?
Update
of 1pm - Inner
City Press
asked Controller
Maria Eugenia
Casar if in
fact she had
good news. No,
she said, at
least not yet.
She specified
that a "big
commercial
bank" is
considering
opening the
account.
JPMorgan
Chase?
Citibank?
Capital One,
of the
Visigoths?
Inner City
Press asked if
UNFCU can open
the account.
Only with the
regulator's
agreement, she
said. Watch
this site.
, 
