They said an amendment to the existing investment law to annul the ceiling on foreign ownership should be put in place by the end of the year.
"The amendment to get an exemption to set up new banks with ownership that exceeds 50 percent is expected soon," said Rateb Shallah, chairman of the privately owned Bank of Syria and Overseas, in which Lebanon's BLOM has a 39 percent stake.
"It will open the opportunity for foreign banks to set up branches across the country," Shallah, who is also head of the Syrian Chambers of Commerce, told Reuters.
The 49 percent limit dates back to 2001, when Syria passed a law that ended four decades of state domination of the banking sector.
The changes are partly due to outside pressure on Syria to liberalise its economy, introduce democratic reforms and stop interfering in the internal affairs of neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon.
This week the UN Security Council passed a resolution ordering Syria to cooperate fully with a UN inquiry into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister or face "further action".
The probe into the February killing of Rafik al-Hariri last month named senior Syrian officials as suspects.
Since the first private sector bank opened last year, foreign players have begun to rush into Syria to grab a slice of its large personal savings market, bankers say.
So far there are four private sector banks which operate as joint ventures between Syrian and foreign investors: Bank of Syria and Overseas, Banque Bemo-Saudi-Fransi, Bank Audi and International Trade and Finance.
Two other banks that also plan to open soon are Amman-based Arab Bank and Lebanon's Byblos.
Private banks now compete with the large state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, which lacks their flexibility but still dominates government business.
Shallah said several other banks were awaiting the new law to enter the lucrative banking sector, which had $13.8 billion in total deposits at the end of 2004. Bankers say the banking system has a lot of potential for growth, with only 282 bank branches in a country of 18 million people, equivalent to one branch per 64,000 inhabitants compared to a regional average of one branch per 25,000 people.
Domestic savings alone are estimated to total $15 billion, with foreign currency almost four times that amount and mostly under-utilised.
Syria's private banks were all raising their capital beyond the compulsory $30 million and expanding their range of products and branches across the country, bankers say.