[2] The objective of the bank is "to foster the stability, integrity and efficiency of the nation’s financial and payment systems so as to promote optimal macro economic performance".

Syria joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on April 10, 1947[4] and fixed the exchange rate at £S 2.19 to US$1.

In 1958, and after the union with Egypt, the state began to Arabize the commercial banking system and in 1961 implemented a policy of limited nationalization.

[13] The Bank has taken an increasingly clandestine role in the domestic private sector as the country's failing economy has deterred foreign investment.

[14] On 23 December 2020, the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the Central Bank of Syria along with nine other entities and seven individuals, due to their role during the Syrian Civil War.

[17] This is similar to how the Syrian government is using its foreign reserves to meet the demands of a budget deficit which has greatly increased to about US$6.7 billion.