The Central Bank clarifies the deprivation of Iraqi banks from dealing in dollars
The Central Bank clarifies the deprivation of Iraqi banks from dealing in dollars
07-20-2023
On Thursday, the Central Bank of Iraq issued a statement regarding depriving some Iraqi banks from dealing in dollars, while calling on the government to set up a mechanism to link imports, and to prove the existence of a fundamental financial transfer to prevent the formation of unjustified pressure on the dollar.
In an explanatory statement, the bank said the following:
1- Preventing Iraqi banks from dealing in dollars came against the background of checking bank transfers for the past year (2022), and before the application of the electronic platform, and before the formation of the current government as well.
2- Banks that are deprived of dealing in US dollars enjoy complete freedom in dealing in Iraqi dinars with various services within the Iraqi banking system, in addition to their right to deal internationally in currencies other than the US dollar.
3- The application of the electronic platform for external transfers ensures the safety and accuracy of transfer transactions from all aspects, in accordance with international standards and practices, and the law against money laundering and terrorist financing. The US Federal Bank, the US Department of the Treasury and international financial institutions praise this system, and it enjoys their care, with high coordination from those parties, and with an accredited international auditor.
4- What the Central Bank of Iraq has achieved in terms of expanding transfer channels and approved correspondent banks makes transfer operations available and secure, and that the number of local banks that do this is able to cover all transfer requests, with the ability of the Central Bank of Iraq to cover them without restrictions or ceilings, as long as they involve legitimate operations, bearing in mind that banks banned from the dollar do not make up their requests for only 8% of the total external transfers.
5- The announced exchange rate in the market is based on cash dollars granted by the Central Bank of Iraq to cover citizens’ requests for travel and others, and because of the citizen’s need for the national currency, some merchants and others withdraw dollars for trade or other purposes, away from the platform and away from the fundamentalist transfer contexts, which leads to an increase in the exchange rate in the black market, which is not a parallel market, as long as the source of the dollar is the central bank and not from within the market.
In order to address this phenomenon, we call on the esteemed government to establish a mechanism to link imports, and to prove the existence of a fundamental financial transfer corresponding to its value in order to prevent the use of illegal means to pay its values that constitute unjustified pressure on the cash dollar, and on the other hand, it helps in controlling manipulation and smuggling of imports.
dijlah.tv
