Iraq Business News brings you the latest Iraq banking & finance news, with information on developments and opportunities.
Iraqi government-owned banks and the National Investment Commission (NIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on mechanisms to collect the necessary funds to build residential compounds and offer enough guarantees for investors, according to the Finance Ministry. “Minister of Finance, Baqer al-Zubaydi [Baqir Jabr Al-Zubeidi], chaired a four-hour meeting that dealt with the role […]
Request for expressions of interest: Technical assistance to Kurdistan Investment Board The Kurdistan Board of Investment of the Kurdistan Regional Government (BoI - KRG) seeks professional assistance to enhance the quality of the board's evaluation process from various perspectives, including the technical review and assessment of the investment proposals submitted to the board. The main […]
The Central Bank of Iraq has instructed private banks to raise at least $7 billion in fresh capital over the next three years to be able to handle an expected oil-fueled construction boom, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ahmed Ibraihi, Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, told the newspaper on Wednesday that […]
Taylor-DeJongh, a leading energy and infrastructure investment banking firm, and Phoenix Capital LLC, a Baghdad-based investment bank, announced on Wednesday that they have entered into a strategic partnership to create the first Washington-Baghdad financial services firm. The partnership will provide specialist industry knowledge and financial expertise to both international and Iraqi public and private sector […]
Bloomberg reports that Japanese consumers are being warned about an investment scam selling Iraqi dinar on predictions the currency will surge in value. A man in western Japan spent 2 million yen ($25,000) to buy 500,000 Iraqi dinar ($428) after a caller recommended buying the currency because it was expected to gain as much as […]
In my October 11 post, I argued that the ISX stands a reasonable chance of joining this year’s emerging markets rally. Today, I’d like to make an even more audacious claim: in 2011, inflows of foreign money could potentially make Iraq the world’s top performing market. You can get some idea of the upside potential […]
We get many enquiries at Iraq Business News relating to the future of the Iraqi dinar (IQD), for example: Will the Iraqi dinar increase in value? Will the currency be re-denominated, dropping the 'three zeros'? Is it wise to buy Iraqi dinar? Firstly, Iraq Business News is not in a position to give investment advice. […]
According to media reports, Iraq's Central Bank said on Tuesday that the decision to remove the three zeros from the Iraqi currency would require consultation with the next government. Quoting a consultant refered to as Mohammed Saleh, the report says that deleting three zeros from the currency would negatively affect Iraqi citizens, but would facilitate […]
"Iraq is ... getting back on track and it's a country that cannot be allowed not to succeed." So said a top executive at Abu Dhabi-owned asset management firm Invest AD said on Monday. Speaking at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit, Mohammed al Hashemi said Invest AD was still putting its Iraqi portfolio together, […]
MerchantBridge, the international private equity group with diverse investment interests operating from Iraq, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, has launched an Iraq equity fund, the "Mesopotamia Equity Fund Ltd". The Mesopotamia Fund is an open ended fund that will capitalize on the expected long term growth of the Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX). […]
On October 6, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) announced new deadlines for the private sector banks to reach the capital targets it set for them last March. According to the CBI’s original timetable, the banks had until the end of this year to bring their capital up to ID 100 bn (US$ 85 mn), […]
Gulf Keystone Petroleum (LSE: GKP), the Aim-quoted oil explorer, has raised £109m ($175m, 210 billion Iraqi dinars) to accelerate its Iraq-based drilling programme in a surprise share placement. The Financial Times reported on Saturday tha the placement was run by Mirabaud Securities and priced at 140p a share; Gulf Keystone’s shares closed at 143½p on […]
