By John Lee. British bank Standard Chartered is to apply to Iraqi regulators for permission to open three business branches in Baghdad, Basra and Erbil. Chief executive of wholesale banking, Mike Rees (pictured), told The Telegraph: "Associated with the name British is trust ... It is a very important brand which I think is underestimated. But […]
By Omar al-Shaher, for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Privately held Iraqi banks have almost entirely relinquished their traditional functions — such as giving out loans, lending credit and issuing letters of credit — due to default risks. Instead, they are […]
More than $224 million has been injected into Iraq’s private sector economy in the form of Small & Medium Enterprise bank loans thanks to a cooperative effort between the USAID-Tijara Provincial Economic Growth Program and 12 private commercial banks. Of this amount, around $113 million presently is in circulation helping business owners expand their companies […]
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. Qatar National Bank (QNB) has announced that it has taken control of Iraq's Al-Mansour Investment Bank. It acquired an additional 27.7 percent shareholding for a cash payment of QR425.4 million, bringing its interest in the bank to 50.8 percent. The company said that goodwill of QR117.6 million has been determined on acquisition […]
The Iraqi Central Bank (ICB) said it is granting licences to "a limited number" of private banks to increase their branches in Iraq. Deputy governor Muzher Mohammed Saleh said more than 40 banks were granted the licences. Iraq has about 800 bank branches, and the ICB has required all banks to have at least 250 […]
By Sherif Salem, of Invest AD. Iraq’s banks are quietly on the move, and the consequences for the economy could be powerful and far-reaching. The country has 49 banks, and although lending has increased in the last couple of years, the loan-to-deposit rate still stands at only 44%, compared to around 80-90% for other banks […]
Path Solutions has announced the successful go live of iMAL at Cihan Bank, Erbil. Cihan, the first privately owned bank in Kurdistan first partnered with Path Solutions in October 2009 on this multi-lingual, multi-currency and multi-channel implementation. Specifically in this deployment, Path Solutions implemented the following scope in line with the bank’s expectations: Retail Financing, […]
Iraq could be one of the richest countries in the world. Yet over three quarters of Iraqis do not have bank accounts. So where do they keep that wealth, asks this article from NIQASH, and can the Iraqi banking system be dragged into the 21st century? Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and […]
Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank, a 70.1% owned subsidiary of HSBC Asia Holdings BV, has sold its 19.465% equity interest in Iraqi insurance company Dar Es Salaam Insurance to Gulf Insurance Company for a cash consideration of IQD1.557bn (approximately US$1.33m). The sale took place on 18 December 2011 and represents the disposal of a non-core […]
According to a report in the Financial Times, violence is not deterring investment bankers hungry for potentially lucrative deals in Iraq. Over the past year, a trickle of visits from intrepid bankers has turned into a steady stream of senior executives from some of the world's largest financial institutions. "The international banks can smell the […]
