Exclusive-Audit fails to win U.S. backing for release of Afghan central bank funds - U.S. officials

FILE PHOTO: A person holds a bundle of Afghan afghani banknotes at a money exchange market, following banks and markets reopening after the Taliban took over in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 4, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A U.S.-funded audit of Afghanistan's Taliban-run central bank has failed to win Washington's backing for a return of bank assets from a $3.5 billion Swiss-based trust fund, said two U.S. officials and a former U.S. official, a move that would help ease the country's financial crisis.

The audit has not changed the U.S. Treasury's view that the bank must make reforms before the department will support disbursements from the Afghan Fund to Da Afghanistan Bank, or DAB, as the central bank is known, said a U.S. Treasury official on condition of anonymity.