The Bayt Al Mal’s instructions on cash transactions are printed and hung on the windows of all of the exchange shops. IS members who work for the Bayt Al Mal monitor the work being done in the small exchange offices and they also send in spies to check rules are not being broken. During an interview conducted over a messaging app, Abu Saad*, one of the locals working in a cash office, told NIQASH that high interest rates, or riba, are strictly forbidden as is lending long term. Transferring cash, or receiving cash, cannot be done either, unless the Mosul local presents their identification card and proof of an address in the city.
The Bayt Al Mal also determines the exchange rate - it's more expensive to exchange dinars for dollars in Mosul than in Baghdad, for example - and severely restricts the movement of cash. Nobody may take more than US$10,000 with them unless they have a license to carry that much money – the licenses are issued by the IS group and are only given to local businessmen, Abu Saad explains.
According to one local man, Ahmad Salman*, who used to work for a bank in Mosul, the exchange shops run by the IS group don’t just exchange US dollars for dinars. Salman says they also facilitate the smuggling of US cash into the city. After the Iraqi government stopped sending almost any kind of funds into Mosul, there was a shortage of US dollars – this currency is often used for big ticket purchases or in business in Iraq, as the equivalent amount of Iraqi dinars would fill several duffel bags and nobody wants to carry that much paper around. Dollars were needed in Mosul and both Arab and Kurdish smugglers began taking advantage of this, making about 7 percent extra on whatever cash they brought into the city, Salman notes.
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