London-based Standard Chartered Bank has been in talks for the past 3-4 months to buy a stake in Warka Bank, one of Iraq's biggest private banks, a central bank official said on Monday. Hassan al-Haidari, a central bank advisor, told Reuters: "They (Standard Chartered) wanted more than 50 percent but they (Warka) wanted (to give) […]
Iraqi banks are too small to be useful to international companies, resulting in major investment projects being impeded, Iraqi Electricity Ministry Spokesman Musab al-Mudarres told AKnews on Tuesday. “Iraqi banks cannot provide financial guarantees to foreign companies because their capital is below the guarantees expected by corporations", he said. "The Ministry of Electricity has submitted […]
Abdul Hussein Al-Anbuge, an Iraqi government economic adviser, has urged the country's private lenders to merge in order to strengthen their capital and provide stronger support to the banking sector, AK News has reported. The total capital of Iraqi private banks rose from $30m in 2004 to $1.6bn now, not including what is owned by […]
AKnews quotes a source at 'Esh Bank' [Is Bankasi] as saying that the Iraqi Central bank has granted a license to the Turkish group to open branches in the Iraqi capital and the capital of the Iraqi-Kurdistan region. The source, who declined to be named, told the agency that the Turkish bank is now awaiting […]
The Iraqi Central Bank announced recently an increase in its reserves of foreign currency to more than $ 50 billion, up from $ 41 billion at the end of the first half of 2010. Mohammed Salih, an advisor to the bank, said in an interview with Radio Free Iraq that this increase is attributable to […]
Iraq's Central Bank has reportedly granted new banking licences to four new private banks, each with capital of 250 billion Iraqi dinars [$212 million]. This reportedly brings the number of private banks operating in Iraq to 35. Meanwhile, an economic advisor to the Prime Minister is quoted as saying that a package of incentives is […]
A leading official in the Iraqi Ministry of Finance said on Monday that the Iranian banks currently operating in Iraq, and those planning to open branches in the country, are not covered by UN sanctions as they are not state-owned. The Finance Ministry’s undersecretary, Fadel Nabi, told AKnews that the Iranian banks present in Iraq […]
The Head of Tehran's Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, Yahya Al-Ishaq, said Iran regards Iraq as one of the major investment locations in the Middle East region, the local satellite Press TV reported on Monday. Iraq's market and economic relations with Iran is a great opportunity for Tehran, and any failure to grasp this […]
The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) said on Friday that the performance of private banks is better than the performance of state-owned banks, indicating that the lack of restrictions and bureaucracy in private banks gave them a competitive advantage. Muzher Mouhammed Saleh, the chancellor of the CBI, told AKnews: "The future in Iraq will be […]
United States Forces-Iraq provided a forum for members of Iraq’s intelligence community to network across ministries in an effort to assess and promote processes leading to developing a more financially-secure and self-sustaining nation as U.S. Forces continue to draw down. The Intelligence Officer Financial Manager Conference was conducted at the Babylon Conference center here Nov. […]
The managing director of Iran's Arvand Free Zone, Ali-Asghar Parhizgar, has said Iraqi banks have filed requests to set up branches in the zone, according to a report from Tehran Times. Since the establishment of foreign banks' branches in Iran's free zones was facilitated, Iraqi banks have welcomed setting up shops in Arvand Free Zone, […]
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 […]
