Sham Cash App: Technical concerns and incomplete benefits ...Syria

Jana al-Issa | Marina Merhej

In mid-April, the Syrian Ministry of Finance decided to deposit all salaries of public sector workers through the Sham Cash application, to be adopted as the official means for salary payments starting from May.

The circular issued by the Minister of Finance, Mohammed Yosr Bernieh, was directed to all accountants in administrative public bodies and financial directors in economic entities, requesting the issuance of orders for the disbursement of salaries and compensations for workers, and depositing them in the Sham Cash account opened at the Central Bank of Syria (CBS).

The disbursement orders that need to be submitted must be accompanied by an Excel file containing the full name of the worker, account number, and net amount, according to the approved model, as mentioned in the circular.

The reliance on the Sham Cash application as a means of salary disbursement raised many concerns among Syrians, as the application is not available on app stores and can only be downloaded through an external link. The circular also opened the door for questions about the ministry’s reasons for this step and its implications.

To facilitate disbursement

After the decision to limit salary delivery to accounts within the Sham Cash application, the Ministry of Finance justified its decision with several justifications, including the facilitation of the salary payment process.

Assistant Minister of Finance for Budget Affairs and Financial Policy, Saleh al-Abd, stated that ministries and governmental bodies submitted lists containing Sham Cash accounts for employees after workers provided their account data to their organizational directors.

Meanwhile, salaries for individuals who could not open an account on Sham Cash or download the application for reasons such as old age, lack of smartphones, or unfamiliarity with using applications, will be directly dispensed through the accountants in the administrative entities where they work, after transferring the salary amounts from Sham Cash accounts to the relevant administrative accountants, according to the assistant minister’s statement.

Al-Abd stated that this decision by the Ministry of Finance comes in the context of speeding up the electronic payment process, enhancing transparency, and facilitating the disbursement of financial dues to public sector workers.

Needs development

Digital security expert Yahya Subeih told Enab Baladi that technical checks did not reveal any malicious software or suspicious behaviors within the application; however, the absence of two-factor authentication when sending money constitutes a weak point, particularly if personal accounts are accessed due to leaked login data. It would be preferable for the application to include a multi-layered verification mechanism to ensure the security of financial transactions, especially in the currently unstable technical environment in Syria.

Although the application requests a lot of information to create an account and its operators conduct periodic updates to enhance user data protection, this does not replace the need for a legal and technical framework to protect data, such as using advanced encryption protocols (like HTTPS and TLS), and securely storing sensitive data. It is also advisable for the application to clearly outline its privacy policy, detailing what data is collected, for what purpose, and who has access to it.

According to Subeih, the permissions currently requested by the application do not appear excessive or mandatory, and it would be preferable for the application to provide a clear explanation for each permission requested, the reason for its necessity, and it would also be good to add an option to “deny” non-essential permissions while ensuring the application continues to function, which would enhance transparency and mitigate privacy violation concerns.

Subeih justified that the primary reason for the absence of the Sham Cash application in official stores is the sanctions imposed on Syria, especially since it is a financial application, meaning it will be subject to strict monitoring by Apple and Google, as their affiliated stores impose strict security requirements and also legal and technical compliance, such as data protection policies and disclosure on how information is collected and processed, which the application may currently lack.

In addition to sanctions, the lack of compliance with the strict security and regulatory requirements that official stores impose on applications could also be a reason; getting the application listed in these stores requires legal compliance and technical adherence, such as the data protection policy and disclosure regarding how information is collected and processed.

User tips

Digital security expert Yahya Subeih offered some advice for users before creating an account on the application, including the following:

Financially good

Regarding the government’s aim in restricting salary payments and transferring public sector salary funds via the Sham Cash application, Dr. Mohammed al-Ghareeb, a professor at the Faculty of Economics at Aleppo University, told Enab Baladi that the goal is to shift from traditional cash transactions to electronic cash dealings.

As for the specific selection of the Sham Cash application for these transfers, it is due to the government’s confidence in this application due to its effective usage in Idlib, but al-Ghareeb believes that it would have been better to rely on the Sham Cash application alongside several other electronic applications for transferring public sector salaries. For instance, several private banks have modern mobile banking applications with high-security features, and a portion of the transfers could have been carried out through banking applications, with the remainder via Sham Cash.

Dr. al-Ghareeb confirmed that the decision ensures a greater transition to electronic transactions, as most countries worldwide are increasingly relying on electronic cash transactions over physical currency transactions.

One of the benefits of this method is reducing the cash volume in circulation, as the application includes contracted merchants and sellers, so users can purchase through the app or pay bills without using cash. However, currently, most contracted stores with the application are located in Idlib, but certainly many stores in various Syrian provinces will contract with Sham Cash, and they will have POS points for making purchases through the application, so citizens will not need to carry cash and deal with it, but instead, purchases will be conducted electronically.

This will reduce the cash volume in the Syrian pound, thus minimizing speculation on the Syrian pound, which helps stabilize the exchange rate. This remains one of the factors; there are many other factors that influence exchange rates.

Moreover, adopting the application facilitates transactions and reduces the effort of carrying cash, especially since the purchasing power of the Syrian pound is low, and citizens need large amounts of banknotes for daily purchasing operations. This will also protect citizens from the risks of cash theft if it exists physically, according to Dr. al-Ghareeb.

On the other hand, the shift to digital transactions contributes to achieving financial inclusion, meaning making financial services available to all segments of society. Certainly, the use of electronic applications for bill payment offers access to many services for all citizens such as payment services, purchases, in addition to financial transfer operations and other financial services.

Other negative aspects

Restricting salary delivery to cash only through the al-Haram and al-Fouad companies specifically has many negatives, according to Dr. Mohammed al-Ghareeb. Specifically, the massive congestion at the offices of these two companies to receive salaries in cash will lead to long queues comprising hundreds of thousands of employees waiting to receive their salaries in cash. This could open the door for opportunism by some individuals to expedite the process or secure cash amounts without waiting in line, which requires government and central bank oversight over these two companies, ensuring that there are government monitors at all their offices to ensure fairness in the process of receiving cash through a fair queue for citizens.

Dr. al-Ghareeb pointed out another negative aspect, represented by the high commission fee for cash salary withdrawal, which has been set at five per thousand. This percentage is not small, as an employee earning 500,000 Syrian pounds would pay an amount of 2,500 pounds in commission for receiving their salary in cash, noting that it would be better to reduce the commission rate.

The culture of banking transactions in Syria is almost absent due to imposed regulations, including restricting the daily withdrawal limit and the depreciation of the pound. This means the loss of money’s value if kept in banks with the continued decline of the pound’s value.

Furthermore, some electronic transactions in this context are unavailable due to the absence of the necessary infrastructure and software, amid daily problems faced by residents of Syria related to the weak access to electricity and the Internet.

Sham Cash App: Technical concerns and incomplete benefits Enab Baladi.

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