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 […]
By John Lee. Iraq made its first major move in years to boost its gold reserves, joining central banks from emerging market economies such as Brazil and Russia in diversifying its foreign reserves. According to a report from the Lebanese Daily Star, central bank purchases have been one of the biggest drivers of gold's rally […]
By John Lee. A member of the Parliamentary Finance Committee has ruled out dropping the three zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 because "the ground is not prepared yet". MP Majida al-Timimi told AIN: "The process of deleting zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 depends on the nature of the policy of the […]
By John Lee. Reuters reports that "thousands" of people are still speculating on a huge upward revaluation of the Iraqi dinar, which it describes as "one of the chanciest investments in the world". It quotes a Las Vegas-based speculator, who previously lost most of his retirement fund on the stock market, as saying: "It's not […]
By John Lee. Sinan al-Shabibi (pictured), the former head Iraq's Central Bank who was removed for suspected mismanagement and currency manipulation, has dismissed the charges against him as baseless and trumped up. Speaking to AFP, he said authorities had compromised the bank's independence to access its reserves, adding that the government had been "spoiled" by […]
By John Lee. Iraqi MP and member of the Parliamentary Economic and Investment Committee, Nahida al-Dayni, has ruled out deleting the zeros from the Iraqi currency soon. Speaking to All Iraqi News Agency (AIN), she said: "The process of deleting the zeros from the Iraqi currency will not be done soon due to the lack […]
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 […]
By John Lee. Investigators in Iraq have opened an inquiry into alleged manipulation of the exchange rate between the Iraqi dinar (IQD) and the US dollar, and arrest warrants have reportedly been issued for several officials including the head of the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI). Hassan Karim Aati, spokesman for the Commission on Integrity, […]
By Mohammed Hamid al-Sawaf. This article was originally published by Niqash. Any opinions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News. Unofficial money changers are common in Iraq – and trade is particularly brisk in the tourist town of Karbala. But recently a gang of fraudsters […]
The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) has ruled out deleting the three zeros from the Iraqi currency in 2013 because it needs time and a new fiscal year. The Deputy Chairman of the CBI, Mudhir Mohamed Salih, told AIN on Wednesday: "The project of crossing out zeros from the Iraqi currency takes time ... The […]
The owner and three employees of a US business promising high returns on the Iraqi dinar have been indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and wire-fraud charges for allegedly duping investors out of more than $23 million. According to reports, Rudolph M. Coenen, 47, the owner of Bayshore Capital Investments LLC, is charged […]
By John Lee. Iraq's deputy Minister of Finance has said the three zeros cannot be removed from Iraqi dinars during 2013 because no preparations have been made. According to the report from AKnews, the Iraqi Central Bank and people have been saying for four years that the zeros in the Iraqi currency will be erased […]
