Talasbank limits cash withdrawals as depositors queue

TALAS — Talasbank yesterday limited cash withdrawals from its branches after a second day of long queues by depositors trying to take out their dollar savings, following the withdrawal of the United States from the Alimbekov-Baker Treaty on Sunday.

Under the limits announced by the bank's management, customers may withdraw only a fixed amount of cash each day from dollar and som accounts. Transfers between accounts and card payments are unaffected. Lines formed before dawn outside the bank's head office in the Silk Road Financial Tower and outside branches in Talas and Nurzhan, and several branches closed early after running short of dollar banknotes.

The bank said the limits were temporary and that deposits were safe. "The bank is solvent. What we are short of is paper, not money," a senior manager said. Talasbank, chartered in 1993, holds most commercial deposits in the territory, the escrow accounts for its main exports and many government payrolls.

Bankers in Talas said the immediate question was whether the bank's American correspondent banks, through which it settles dollar payments, would continue to deal with it while the territory's legal status remains unclear. The Supreme Court is considering an emergency petition by Bakyt Orozbekov, the former chief legal counsel to the Territorial Senate, on whether the territory's statutory independence clause has now taken effect.