By Andrew Cunningham, for Arabian Gulf Business Insight (AGBI). Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Iraq's central bank governor cannot fight crime on his own On June 19, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed Iraq on its grey list, subjecting […]
By John Lee. Iraq has been added to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring -- commonly known as the grey list -- following the organisation's June 2026 plenary session. Iraq made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and MENAFATF to strengthen the effectiveness of its anti-money […]
By John Lee. The Iraq Securities Commission (ISC) has issued a circular to all brokerage companies requiring the adoption of a new risk-based supervisory guide covering the institutional framework and core elements of risk-based oversight and supervision. It says the measure is in line with recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and forms […]
By John Lee. A workshop has been held on preparations for the next phase of Iraq's mutual evaluation process on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) at national and sectoral levels. The event was organised by the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI)'s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Office, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior […]
By John Lee. The Erbil branch of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) held a training workshop on "National and Sectoral Risk Assessment Procedures" in collaboration with the CBI's Banking Studies Centre and the Office of the Compliance Monitor. The event brought together representatives from private banks, non-banking financial institutions, and electronic payment companies operating […]
By John Lee. The Washington DC-based Institute for Financial Integrity (IFI) has announced the launch of the Financial Integrity and Cross-Border Payments Training Program for the National Bank of Iraq (NBI), developed in partnership with the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) and K2 Integrity. According to a press release from IFI, this groundbreaking initiative aims […]
By John Lee. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has completed an assessment of Iraq's measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, and this week published its report. The assessment is a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of Iraq's measures to protect the financial system from abuse and its level of compliance with the […]
On Tuesday, Rebar Ahmad, the Kurdistan Regional Government's Minister of Interior, welcomed the KRG's Financial Action Taskforce for money laundering and terrorist financing. The taskforce includes representatives from 15 other organisations in the region and operates in accordance with international standards. Minister Ahmad praised the taskforce's efforts and emphasised the government's transparent policies for combating […]
The President and Chairman of the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) has said that he expects it will be "a number of years" before payment processing services such as Paypal and Stripe will be able to operate in Iraq. Responding to a question from Iraq Business News (IBN) at the Iraq Britain Business Council (IBBC)'s […]
By John Lee. The European Union's Ambassador to Iraq has announced that Iraq has been removed from its list of countries deemed to carry a high risk of money laundering. Following a meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in Baghdad on Sunday, Ville Varjola tweeted: "Bringing the good news today to HE Prime Minister Mustafa […]
By John Lee. The United Kingdom has removed Iraq from the list of high-risk third countries for the purposes of money laundering legislation. The new listing -- "Schedule 3ZA" -- does not include Iraq. This schedule replaces the list in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 of 14th July 2016 by identifying high-risk third countries with […]
By John Lee. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has congratulated Iraq for the significant progress made in addressing the strategic deficiencies in the areas of anti money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) identified earlier by the FATF and included in its action plan. Iraq will no longer be subject to […]
