Afghan regulators are struggling to uncover what happened to up to $900 million that may have gone missing from Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest and most sophisticated financial institution. The sum, now thought to be three times as large as an estimate made in August, is alleged to have been siphoned off in a web of corruption, bribes and mismanagement that likely benefited a small group of privileged and politically connected Afghans. Analysts fear that because the bank is a pillar of the country's meager financial system, its collapse could crash Afghanistan's fragile economy and spark domestic chaos. The government is determined to keep the bank afloat, though doing so would require a large cash injection from its already strapped, foreign-aid-dependent budget.
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