The latest news on CBI (Central Bank Iraq) – banking, capital, government and more – brought to you by Iraq Business News
By Mark DeWeaver. This has been quite a year for the Iraqi dinar. From a level of IQD 1,217: USD 1 at the end of 2014, the market rate for the currency weakened steadily during the first quarter, penetrated a key support level at 1,290 in late April, and reached a low of 1,379 on […]
By Mark DeWeaver. This year the Ministry of Finance (MoF) is set to sell IQD 11 trillion in new debt to the state sector banks, thereby partially filling the hole in the central government budget left by the recent collapse in oil prices. The new issuance should bring total treasury bills outstanding to IQD 18 […]
By Amina al-Dahabi for Al-Monitor. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. A prominent economic official in the Iraqi government, who preferred to remain anonymous, said in an interview with Al-Monitor that out of the 33 private Iraqi banks operating in the country, 29 […]
By John Lee. The Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, Ali Mohsin Ismail (pictured), has been appointed Governor o the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), replacing Dr Abdulbasit Turki [Abdul Basit Turki Saeed]. His position as GSCOM is to be filled by Dr. Hamed khalaf Ahmad. Mr Ismail said he was leaving his former […]
By Mark DeWeaver. While it has long been assumed that ISIS gets most of its money from donors in the Gulf, recently declassified documents suggest otherwise. Researchers at the RAND Corporation found that donations actually accounted for less than 5% of the group’s funding during the period from 2005 to 2010. (See this article.) The […]
By Mark DeWeaver. Since the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) began changing the rules for its USD auctions in 2012, Iraq has been operating a de facto dual exchange rate system. (There’s a summary of some of the CBI’s recent rule changes on pages 12-14 of this report from Sansar Capital.) For those with access […]
By Mark DeWeaver. In my last post I argued that Iraqi banks’ high cash/deposit ratios are due to the absence of an interbank market. If that is the case, you might think it would be easy to get the banks to put more of their deposits to work in the "real economy." Couldn’t somebody (e.g. […]
By Mark DeWeaver. Fund managers visiting Iraq for the first time are often surprised by the large amounts of cash Iraqi banks typically hold. While the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) requires lenders to hold 15% of their deposits in the form of vault cash and central bank reserves, most hold well over 50%. (See […]
By Mark DeWeaver. A year ago I wrote a post called “Will the Banks Get More Time,” in which I argued that most of the ISX-listed banks weren’t going to make the central bank’s deadline of June 30, 2012 to reach IQD 150 bn in paid-up capital. I posted pretty much the same thing back […]
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. According to experts, the hard-currency auction governed by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) — the authority in charge of implementing monetary policy in the country — has ushered in the […]
By Mark DeWeaver. On October 16, Prime Minister Maliki removed the head of the central bank, Sinan al-Shabibi, accusing him of mismanagement and currency manipulation. (There’s more on this story here, here, and here.) This move was widely seen as a power grab by the prime minister and a grave threat to the CBI’s independence. […]
Perhaps the biggest story of recent days was the shock dismissal of the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI), Sinan al-Shabibi, and the issuing of arrest warrants for him and many of his staff. The nature of the allegations against Mr Shabibi are not entirely clear, but appear to center around manipulation of […]
