06/04/2013
New York Times
Iraq is still struggling to overcome the economic effects of the war and armed actions and political rifts and the fragile security situation. For its nascent banking sector, the challenges do not stop at this point. According to the official website of the Central Bank of Iraq, there are seven state banks in the country and 32 waged banks and 15 foreign banks, but analysts say there is a section of the State-owned banks - especially the Rafidain and Rasheed - controls 90% of the banking business. Says as Khalil Al-Salem Executive Director of the Bank of الكابيتال Ahli in Jordan, which owns 72% of National Bank of Iraq, "the fact that the public banks have been given the opportunity to benefit from the funds of the public sector huge, it is natural to be marginalized banks Iraqi civil, resulting in a loss of confidence of consumers who fear the possibility of the collapse of the private banks, which constitutes a major challenge for the growth of the private banks. " On the other hand says supporter Makhlouf, regional director of the Middle East and North Africa of the International Finance Corporation in Dubai (World Bank Unit, which oversees the private sector) "There are no equal opportunities in Iraq because most of the agencies and state-owned companies - and employees - restricted in their dealings with private banks and deal only with public banks. As a result, the private sector - consisting of approximately 40 banks - a very small and limited his activity in the field of loans. "
Because of the possibility of public banks access to public funds, the capital good, but private banks, it should struggling to get deals in infrastructure competition protector in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
And adding to the difficulties, the central bank has provided two years ago, a law that defines the minimum capital requirements for all Iraqi banks at $ 215 million, will be implemented in June of this year. Says Tawfiq tempers co-director of the company ايفرشيدز of international law "there is a big issue concerning the adequacy of capital in the private banks and request the Central Bank capital increase gradually, it is likely that there will be integration of large among these banks, and possibly close some banks down, and may banks merge or buy other banks. "
If we add to that the costs of the application of risk management and anti-money laundering measures and the difficulty of running Ahli Bank in Iraq, the task seems too strenuous. However has expressed several foreign banks in recent willingness to enter the banking market in Iraq and pursuit of funding opportunities for projects in the country has a lot of untapped potential. Among these banks, Standard Bank تشاترد which gets 90% of its profits and revenues from the provision of services wholesale consumer banking in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. In the last steps, the bank plans to open three offices in Iraq. This bank has a representative office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil.
In order to expand the activities of its customers within Iraq, the bank introduced this year a request to the Central Bank of Iraq to obtaining licenses in order to expand his office in Erbil to a branch full and to open an office in Baghdad, followed by another branch in the southern city of Basra in 2014. The bank also plans to appoint an executive director in Baghdad to oversee its work in Iraq.
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