“New Understandings” with the United States on Local Banks and Remittances
“New Understandings” with the United States on Local Banks and Remittances
09/02/2024
As part of the ongoing efforts of the Central Bank of Iraq to find fruitful understandings with the United States of America regarding foreign transfers and protecting the Iraqi banking system from sanctions, a delegation from the Central Bank held intensive talks in New York.
The talks included expanding the network of international correspondent banks and qualifying Iraqi banks to meet the necessary requirements to open their accounts with international correspondent banks, with the aim of enabling them to complete their financial transactions, whether through foreign transfers in US dollars or other foreign currencies.
Financial and banking experts described the visit as “fruitful”, in light of the satisfaction of international partners with the course of the Central Bank’s work during the past period, and the follow-up of financial transfers.
Economic expert Nabil Jabbar Al-Tamimi told Al-Sabah that the Iraqi Bank’s visit to the United States of America included canceling the platform at the end of this year, in addition to working to start transfers to private banks with large banks.
He added that “this visit is not the first of its kind,” explaining that these understandings give the Iraqi banking system an opportunity to make banking changes and improvements, enabling Iraq to prepare the conditions and capabilities to integrate with the global banking system.
A delegation from the Central Bank, led by Governor Ali Al-Alaq and a number of general managers, has been visiting the United States since the 26th of this month to discuss developments in the banking sector and the restrictions on the use of the dollar imposed on a large number of private banks.
For his part, financial and banking expert Mustafa Akram Hantoush said in a statement to Al-Sabah: The discussions included correcting the status of the sanctioned Iraqi banks and working to open accounts with correspondent banks during the coming period.
He added that the understandings also included conducting external transfer operations through 13 Iraqi banks through regulatory mechanisms that include dealing in the euro, Chinese yuan, Indian rupee, and Emirati dirham.
The Central Bank announced in a statement issued last Saturday that a negotiating delegation held a series of intensive meetings in New York City, USA, which included discussions with the US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank, in addition to meetings with a group of companies (Visa, Mastercard and MoneyGram) as well as banks (Citi Bank and JP Morgan) as well as international auditing firms (KPMG, E&Y, K2i and Oliver Wyman).
He added that the participants in the meetings praised the major transformations achieved by the Central Bank of Iraq, which represent an unprecedented achievement at the country level, as the bank achieved remarkable progress in monitoring procedures for foreign transfers and cash sales of the US dollar, which led to improving systems, policies and procedures in accordance with international and local standards, enhancing transparency in covering foreign trade and providing protection for the banking and financial sector from the risks of money laundering, terrorist financing and financial crimes.
The Central Bank announced in the statement that a meeting will be held between the officials of the Central Bank of Iraq and its international partners by the end of this year regarding the major transformation in ending the work of the electronic platform for foreign transfers and replacing it with direct banking relations between Iraqi banks and the network of international correspondent banks, according to the plan set by this bank, and implemented internationally, which will allow the Central Bank of Iraq and the Federal Reserve Bank to exercise their supervisory roles away from executive procedures.
He explained that this transformation will have important repercussions on the stability, fluidity and transparency of the country’s foreign trade financing operations, noting that it aims to achieve the required stability in exchange rates, which in turn will enhance the efficiency of the financial system in Iraq.
The Central Bank stated that the meetings in New York City also addressed mechanisms for expanding the network of international correspondent banks and qualifying Iraqi banks to meet the necessary requirements to open their accounts with international correspondent banks, with the aim of enabling them to complete their financial transactions, whether through external transfers in US dollars or other foreign currencies.
alsabaah.iq
