Private banks are the source of the “black dollar”... “hegemony” despite the sanctions and government measures - urgent
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Baghdad today - Baghdad
The environment of private banks in Iraq is considered fragile and not reassuring due to rumors about their partisan affiliations, which have been somewhat proven after the recent US sanctions on a wide range of them due to their involvement in smuggling and money laundering operations, which led to the accumulation of money in citizens’ homes to reach approximately 70 trillion dinars. The total Iraqi monetary mass, and its distance from the banking system, due to the lack of confidence and failure to attract this money.
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Out of control
The situation becomes more fragile as the state relies on its dealings with government banks, which the law classifies as “commercial” and not “developmental,” in addition to its control of parallel markets and holding it responsible for the decline in the value of the Iraqi dinar compared to the US dollar, according to observers.
Iraq leads the Middle East countries in the number of banks, with (81) banks, including 7 government and (74) private, i.e. 91% of the total.
Specialists considered that the dominance of private banks over the dollar is the cause of the crisis, including the expert in banking affairs, Ahmed Al-Tamimi, and during his talk to “Baghdad Today,” he pointed out that “private banks have begun to seize the dollar and refuse to give it to citizens, even those who have travel and work.” This dollar was given illegally to many merchants in order to make black transfers.”
Last September, a senior US Treasury official said that the Central Bank of Iraq must address the ongoing risks resulting from the misuse of the dollar in Iraqi commercial banks, to avoid imposing new punitive measures targeting the country’s financial sector, pointing to acts of fraud, money laundering and Iranian evasion. Of penalties.
The official notes that last July, the United States prevented 14 Iraqi banks from conducting transactions in dollars, as part of a broader campaign against the illegal use of the dollar.
Where is the Association of Banks?
Al-Tamimi criticized the Iraqi Banks Association, noting that there is “a major shortcoming in its tasks and duties, as it does not work to monitor or follow up on the work of banks, which are the cause of all the dollar crisis in Iraq, and this matter requires urgent government intervention in order to end this hegemony.” Earlier, the Association of Banks confirmed that it and its member banks are “monitoring” the recent rise in the exchange rate, while reviewing the Central Bank’s procedures that the bank itself had previously revealed in its repeated statements.[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This statement prompted a number of bankers to deplore the role of the association and the weakness of its position towards the implicated banks affiliated with it.
Last February, the Central Bank decided to raise the value of the official exchange rate of the dinar against the dollar by 10 percent in a measure aimed at reducing the depreciation of the currency that accompanied the adoption of more stringent regulations regarding financial transfers outside the country.
The government then agreed to the Central Bank’s proposal to raise the value of the exchange rate from about 1,470 dinars to 1,300 dinars per dollar, which had a clear impact on the exchange market at that time by reducing prices that reached the level of 1,700 dinars in the parallel market.
Warnings and procedures
According to an advisor to the Sudanese government, “The United States of America warned the Sudanese government eight times, publicly and clearly, against the continued sale of the dollar in large quantities through the currency auction window of the Central Bank, and it provided ample evidence that the majority of buyers of the dollar are smuggling it to Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.” He explained in press statements, “This sale led to the monopoly of the dollar among merchants, and a decline in its presence in local and private banks.” Reuters also quoted the Director General of Investment and Transfers at the Central Bank of Iraq, Mazen Ahmed, as saying, “Iraq will ban cash withdrawals and transactions in US dollars as of January 2024,” considering that “the ban is the latest campaign to limit the misuse of Iraq’s currency reserves.” "Hard currency in financial crimes and evasion of US sanctions on Iran."
As part of the government’s efforts to confront the problem of the decline in the value of the Iraqi dinar against the US dollar, and to mitigate the consequences of the financial problem on citizens.
According to a statement issued by Al-Sudani’s media office, on July 23, 2023, Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’ Al-Sudani met with the Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, in the presence of advisors and the bank’s General Director of Investment.
The Prime Minister directed the Central Bank to "make greater efforts to simplify procedures for citizens, as emphasis was placed on implementing the content of the Council of Ministers' decision to pay installments for investment projects by allowing citizens to pay in Iraqi dinars for the values of housing units that they previously purchased in foreign currency."
The Prime Minister also directed the application of Article 48 of the Federal General Budget Law, to unify and simplify tax procedures on the one hand and not link them to external transfers on the other hand.
The meeting witnessed "an emphasis on continuing the measures that the Central Bank will take to compensate citizens and companies who buy the dollar at the unofficial rate, through the Central Bank deducting the financial difference from the banks and exchange companies that sold the dollar at more than its price specified in the bank, after the purchase is proven." “One of those companies,” according to Al-Sudani’s office.
For his part, the Governor of the Central Bank revealed, during the meeting, the bank’s intention to resume the sale of cash dollars through licensed banks in Nineveh Governorate.
Failed to contain the crisis
In this regard, the expert in financial affairs, Ali Al-Rasheed, noted that “all the decisions of the Central Bank regarding its attempt to control the dollar crisis are patchwork measures, and all of them indicate the bank’s confusion in confronting this crisis, and also indicate that it does not have any real solutions to this crisis, which It has a significant impact on the local market.”
For his part, independent MP Hadi Al-Salami said, “The current failure in the US dollar issue is borne by all the Iraqi governments that have ruled the country since 2003 until now. The government of Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani has pledged to solve the crisis by establishing mechanisms to prevent the smuggling of hard currency, but it has not.” "Succeed in this file."
Al-Salami added in a press interview, “Reforming the banking system and the dollar crisis requires controlling the currency auction, which is still selling large amounts of dollars, and we do not know where it goes,” noting that “the problem is big in Iraq, and we are facing huge challenges that may lead to... The current system has cracked, especially since the United States of America has often warned against smuggling the dollar to neighboring countries.”
Over the past years, an average of $170 million was sold daily through what is known as the dollar auction, in which merchants, banks, and companies participate, without monitoring the end of that money, which is classified as import trade for the local market in most cases, or foreign transfers, knowing that The actual need for dollars in the markets and among merchants does not exceed $50 million per day, according to experts.
Source: Baghdad Al-Youm + Agencies
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