After one year of releasing its monetary currency, ISIS forces money transfer and exchange shops to deal in the “Caliphate Currency”

The SOHR learned that the “Islamic State” organization obliged money transfer and exchange shops to deal in the “Islamic State Currency” starting today whether inside or outside the areas under its control. The SOHR received a copy of decisions circulated by ISIS to the owners of money exchange shops. The decision read as follows, “It has been decided to regulate the movement of monetary remittances throughout the month of Ramadan or Shawwal as follows:

(1) No remittances shall be transferred from inside the territories of the Islamic State to the outside except in the currency of the Islamic State

(2) The gold dinar shall be purchased from money transfer offices at USD 155$ and not the minimum price that equals USD 154$, taking into account that if the prices of dinar changed, the purchase price would automatically change.

(3) The transfer fees to Turkey, which amounts to 12 dinars for each 1000 dinars transferred, have been adopted as the standard transfer fees and the transfer fees to the rest of the countries shall be estimated based on it.

(4) Remittances are only delivered in the Islamic State currency in the territories under its control.

(5) Remittances shall be received and delivered within the Islamic State territories based on the trading price of dirham at 1.8236 and not the highest price which equals 1.8285, noting that if the exchange rates of dirhams changed, their purchase price would change automatically.

(6) The transfer fees of remittances coming from Turkey shall be adopted as the standard fees to be, which is 0.5 dirham if the remittance amount is between 100 and 499 dirhams, 1 dirham if the remittance amount is between 500 and 1000 dirhams, and 2 dirhams if it is more than 1000 dirhams.

(7) Money transfer offices may not sell the state currency inside their premises but may sell them outside the premises in case they needed a balance of foreign currencies.

(8) The money transfer offices may purchase the currency directly inside their premises with the minimum purchase price set by the state.

(9) In case the money transfer offices collects more than 5000 dinars and could not dispose of them within the territories of the “Islamic State”, the Currency Department shall be obliged to purchase an amount of the offices’ balances as follows: the Department shall purchase 1/5 of the total balance of the office in dollars and the transaction shall be carried out with the minimum purchase price of the currency, and an interval of minimum of 10 days shall be between every two purchase transactions from the same money transfer office.”

 The “Islamic State” organization issued a second statement that read as follows: “It has been decided as of Friday, the 22nd of Ramadan 1438 AH, that all money exchange offices that work in the field of money transfer shall adopt dinar as the only currency for transferring money to the outside of the territories of the Islamic State, and that no remittances shall be received from outside of the territories of the Islamic State in any other currency but that of the Islamic State as of the date stated above.”

The SOHR had published yesterday that “the “Monetary Authority” affiliated with ISIS has closed 37 money exchange shops in Al-Mayadeen city in the eastern countryside of Deir El-Zour because they had not issued the required work permits although they used to operate normally in the city before it fell under the control of ISIS IN 2014.”

Last May, the SOHR published that ISIS had closed 27 grain and fodder shops in Al-Mayadeen city for 24 hours and that there had been information reported about the shutdown of other shops in the countryside of the city for “selling goods in the Syrian currency and refusing to deal in the Caliphate Currency”. Reliable resources had confirmed to the SOHR that ISIS intend to close the shops as a kind of waring to the sellers after imposing the use of its currency in all dealings in shops, except groceries and food shops.

The SOHR also published at the same time that the “Islamic State” organization had issued and circulated a decision to all areas under its control in Syria stipulating “Buying and selling in all areas under the control of the Islamic State shall be exclusively conducted in its currency (Dinars and Dirhams).” Sources also confirmed to the SOHR that ISIS circulated it decision and issued a warning that “the violators of the decision” will be subject to punishments such as imprisonment, shop shutdown or a fine.

Moreover, the SOHR published in the first third of December 2016 that ISIS issued a decision that stipulates that “buying and selling gold shall be carried out in the coins released by the Islamic State”, that such transactions may not be carried out with paper bills and that violators of such decision “will be held accountable”. The SOHR activists observed that the goldsmiths and jewelers priced the gold at the value of the silver dirham. They also observed in the same month in Al-Mayadeen city in the eastern countryside of Deir- El-Zour that ISIS had paid the salaries of the employees in the utilities companies- electricity, water and postal services- and in the health care sector in addition to those in “ISIS Diwans” in silver dirhams which have been released by the Islamic State on the 23rd of November 2016. This was the first time ISIS change the paper bills with the silver dirham coins they issued. The SOHR also published on the 23rd of November 2016 that ISIS had released a two-dirham silver coin, which consists of a silver coin weighing 6 grams and is equivalent to about 2800 Syrian Pounds, and that ISIS distributed them in Deir El-Zour Province and other areas under its control in Syria. In addition, the SOHR published in the first third of July 2016 that ISIS released a dinar gold coin and started trading in it in the countryside of Deir El-Zour. They also noted that ISIS limited the sale of oil to merchants to be done exclusively in gold dinars, the sale of which shall be regulated by the exchange shops and shall be valued at $190 each. Thus, money exchange shops shall sell each dinar, which weighs four and a half grams, in exchange of $190.50. A high demand for “gold dinars” by merchants was observed to facilitate their oil trading business matters after ISIS had banned its sale except in exchange of their new currency “the gold dinars”. Sources suggested then that ISIS release of a new currency and ordering oil traders to use the new coins when purchasing or selling oil is a measure taken by the organization to make quick profits after its funding sources in several areas in Syria had been targeted, causing a huge deficit in its resources and funding.