The President and Chairman of the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) has said that he expects it will be "a number of years" before payment processing services such as Paypal and Stripe will be able to operate in Iraq.
Responding to a question from Iraq Business News (IBN) at the Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC)'s recent Spring Conference in London, Dr Salem Chalabi added:
"Next year the Iraqi banking sector is going to be analysed by the Financial Action Task Force [FATF], and ... one of the key conditions will be to get positive feedback from the FATF. Then we will hopefully be able to get clearer timing for something like this."
Entrepreneurs in Iraq frequently complain about the difficulties in accessing international e-commerce services and platforms, and say that this limits the creation of new businesses in the country.
The FATF is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. The inter-governmental body sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society.
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