Afghanistan's top bank official tried Wednesday to calm fears of a meltdown at one of the country's largest financial institutions, while scores of Afghans lined up to empty their accounts and found the bank unwilling to comply. The official, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, held a news conference to say that Kabul Bank was more stable than was suggested by the huge financial losses revealed this week. Fitrat, the chairman of Afghanistan's Central Bank, urged Afghans to keep faith in the country's financial system -- and to keep their money in Kabul Bank. On Tuesday, Kabul Bank, at the behest of the country's Central Bank, changed its leadership after the discovery of losses approaching $300 million, an amount far exceeding its capital. The revelations prompted fears among U.S. and Afghan officials of a stampede of withdrawals that could set off a collapse of confidence in Afghanistan's financial system. In a measure of just how seriously officials regarded the bank's troubles, the Central Bank installed its own chief financial officer as the new head of the bank. The other measure of the troubles could be seen Wednesday at the news conference, in the faces of the two Kabul Bank executives who had just resigned. Sherkhan Farnood, the bank's former chairman and its largest shareholder, and Khalilullah Frozi, the former chief executive, flanked Fitrat, looking haggard, ashen and unkempt. Fitrat, for all his efforts, failed to address some of the larger issues surrounding Kabul Bank, one of the country's largest private financial institutions. He did not mention the $300 million in losses -- compared with just $120 million in assets. Fitrat promised that the Central Bank would stand behind Kabul Bank 'with all its means and power,' but he did not guarantee the depositors' money. Finally, Fitrat did not explain how Kabul Bank got into such trouble in the first place. Farnood appears to have run the bank as much for his own personal gain as to make loans to Afghans, investigators said. He borrowed at least $140 million to buy property in the United Arab Emirates for himself, shareholders say. And he lent $100 million to one of the bank's other shareholders, Hameed Fahim, the son of Afghanistan's first vice president. In addition, Farnood cultivated a close relationship with President Hamid Karzai, bankrolling his re-election campaign last year. In the absence of a thorough explanation, many Afghans appeared to disregard Fitrat's pleas. By Wednesday morning, the lobby of Kabul Bank was filled with people who wanted to take out their money. Many of them were told that they could not -- that the bank did not have any money to give them. 