The Taliban, following their resistance-free takeover of Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul, will not be given any access to the cash reserves of the Central Bank in the United States.
Kabul was the last major government stronghold of the country, and the insurgent group has regained control of it after 20 years.
The Taliban's declaration that it had seized control of Afghanistan on Monday put central bank watchdogs around the world on full alert.
According to a U.S. representative, the Taliban don't have access to Afghan government-owned central bank assets, The Independent reported.
Most Afghan funds are kept offshore. It's not clear how much money the insurgent organization keeps in the U.S.
Afghanistan's central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank, held around $9.5 billion in foreign reserves as of April this year, the International Monetary Fund said.
The U.S. government has previously seized the bank accounts of nations whose governments it does not acknowledge, like Venezuela.
After the U.S. government appointed opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate head of state, it released some of the billions of dollars in confiscated funds to compensate health sector employees, The Independent said.
International monitoring groups are worried about what the Taliban would do with the money if it was given access to the central bank's assets.
Central banks normally hold reserves in gold or a broadly held currency such as the U.S. dollar. Central banks use these reserves for transactions among other financial institutions and lenders.
Taliban commanders declared victory at Kabul's Presidential Palace Sunday evening after the country's President, Ashraf Ghani, fled abroad.
As of Monday, nobody knows exactly where Ghani was or would end up living, Adam Nossiter and Matthew Rosenberg of The New York Times said.
Some sources claim Ghani had sought safety from neighboring Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. He remains unreachable by phone at this time, the NYT said.
Last week, U.S. Republican legislator Andy Barr urged the Federal Reserve to make sure assets held by the Afghan government in the U.S. do not fall into the hands of the Taliban.
Barr said allowing the insurgents to access their bank accounts in the U.S. would strengthen their power.
