Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq banking & finance news, with information on developments and opportunities.
By John Lee. A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee has ruled out dropping the three zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 because "the ground is not prepared yet". MP Majida al-Timimi told AIN: "The process of deleting zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 depends on the nature of the policy of the […]
By John Lee. If we gave a prize for the best quote of the week, this week's top contender would be Sami Haddad, the general manager of Lebanon's Byblos Bank, which is expanding its presence in Iraq. "You would have to be stupid not to make money [in Iraq]", he said. And of course banking […]
By John Lee. Lebanon's biggest bank, Bank Audi, plans to enter the Iraqi market late next year. Chief Executive Samir Hanna (pictured) told Reuters that its new Iraqi operation will be a subsidiary of its Turkish business, which it launched in October and which is trading "more than 50 percent ahead" of the bank's target. […]
By John Lee. The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) has cancelled today's (November 22) session due to a technical fault in the Electronic Trading System. They are working to fix this problem. In addition, there will be no trading session at the ISX on Sunday (November 25) due to an official holiday. [Best forex brokers in […]
By John Lee. A member of the Parliamentary Economy and Investment Committee has told AIN news agency that the 2013 federal budget will include low-interest loans for the industrialists. MP Abdul Hussein Abtan said: "The industrial sector needs such projects because it needs money and support after the embargo imposed on the country during the […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that "thousands" of people are still speculating on a huge upward revaluation of the Iraqi dinar, which it describes as "one of the chanciest investments in the world". It quotes a Las Vegas-based speculator, who previously lost most of his retirement fund on the stock market, as saying: "It's not […]
By John Lee. The board of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) voted to guarantee a JPMorgan Chase loan totaling $35 million to Devco International LLC (Devco) of Tulsa, Okla., for the design and construction of a sulfur purification plant in Mosul, Iraq. Ex-Im Bank's financing will support approximately 380 U.S. jobs, […]
By John Lee. Sinan al-Shabibi (pictured), the former head Iraq's Central Bank who was removed for suspected mismanagement and currency manipulation, has dismissed the charges against him as baseless and trumped up. Speaking to AFP, he said authorities had compromised the bank's independence to access its reserves, adding that the government had been "spoiled" by […]
By John Lee. Dana Gas, the Middle East’s first and largest regional private sector natural gas company, has announced that it has reached an in-principle agreement on the restructuring terms of the US$1 billion Sukuk-al-Mudarabah due 31 October 2012 with the Ad Hoc Committee of Sukukholders. The Ad Hoc Committee holds a majority of the […]
Izumi Kobayashi, Executive Vice President of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) -- the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group -- will visit Iraq, Jordan, and the West Bank and Gaza in early November. During her visit, she will discuss opportunities for private sector investment and raise awareness of how MIGA's investment […]
By John Lee. Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes is planning to expand into Turkey, Iraq and Libya, according to a report from Reuters. The company also plans to grow its asset management arm by 50 percent after the completion of its joint venture with Qatar's QInvest. QInvest will hold 60 per cent and EFG's holding […]
By John Lee. The yield on Iraqi bonds has fallen more than three times as much as the average Middle Eastern bond, reports Bloomberg. From the start of June to the end of October, the rate on 5.8 percent dollar-denominated Iraqi government bonds maturing in January 2028 has fallen by 216 basis points to 6.48 […]
