Economy News – Baghdad
The White House announced that the upcoming and important visit of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani to the United States of America and the meeting with the US administration was scheduled for April 15.
It makes it very important in this critical and complex stage that Iraq is going through to include the agenda of meetings and negotiations with the leaders of the US administration, the Treasury Department and the other federal that the next and clear paths of bilateral economic relations between the two friendly countries, which have wide relations in all fields and the axes of the visit are determined?
We believe that one of the important files that will be included in the discussions and negotiations and with the participation of the Central Bank and the Association of Iraqi Private Banks is the subject of financial and banking reform, protecting the Iraqi banking sector from collapse after the issuance of sanctions and restrictions, depriving 50% of the total private banking sector from dealing in US dollars, which is the main foreign currency for banking and commercial dealing in Iraq and international banking relations for a long time. They must be informed of the US administration and the Ministry that continuing to deal with the Iraqi banking system in this exclusionary way and without stating the real reasons for the sanctions, which are due to the activities of previous years, and that the American officials and those who issued sanctions on 28 private Iraqi banks praise the safety of foreign transfers for purposes Coverage of private sector imports in 2023 since the implementation of the electronic sector.
This means that the government and the central bank are coordinating and cooperating with the US Treasury and the global financial system in accordance with the government’s banking and financial reform strategy adopted in the government’s curriculum and with high discipline with international standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
These efforts have already resulted in achieving fruitful economic results after the agreements with the US Treasury, the US Federal and some sober international banks in 2023 and their adoption of correspondent banks to some of our banks, and more than 40 accounts were opened to them in these banks.
Therefore, we believe that the inputs and outputs of this important visit must convince the American side to reconsider the sanctions imposed, especially since all the punished banks are currently subject to scrutiny by K2 International Company, and this confirms the good faith of the banks that the reasons for depriving from dealing in the US dollar were not serious mistakes and can be overcome, if they exist in the joint cooperation between the two parties.
The importance of re-activity and protection of the private banking system and the guarantee of the results of its work through the electronic platform for the year 2023 is important. Which confirmed its safety and transparency, and I believe that the failure to reach quick solutions with this file will confuse the commercial and banking market and will affect the supplies of the ration card, which is the main food source of the wide segment of the Iraqi people and weaken the plans and procedures of the Central Bank and the government in financial and banking reform, lack of control over the stability of the exchange rate of the Iraqi dinar and the damage of the national economy, which confirms World Bank reports that the economy moved during the Sudanese government from fragility to recovery.
The continued sponsorship and support of the United States of America for Iraq as a friendly country requires it to protect the Iraqi economy and the banking sector from collapse in these difficult circumstances experienced by Iraq, regional countries and the world. We wish that the discussions of the banks’ file in Washington will result from their return to the practice of all their local and international banking activities.
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Added 2024/03/24 – 11:03 AM
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