The Finance Committee of the Iraqi Parliament entered the issue of cash dollar shortage predicted in the country at the beginning of 2024, after the Central Bank’s decision, while talking about “foreign” banks controlling the currency auction on Saturday.
According to Muhammad Nouri, a member of the committee, “There are a number of banks that control the window for buying and selling foreign currency, and they are non-Iraqi banks, and the conditions set by the Central Bank are applied to a pre-specified group before it sets conditions on the banks or companies so that they are The sole controller of the foreign currency buying and selling window.”
Nouri went on to say, “Most financial transfers are (fake) under the pretext of purchasing goods, and here is an indication of the delay in real transfers, given that the fake transfers are supported and backed by a political group and armed factions affiliated with the economic parties.”
He said, “But personal transfers for the purpose of study and treatment outside the country and simple trade, we find that they are real, but large transfers are not real because they are affiliated with the economics of the parties, and their purpose is to smuggle currency outside the country.”
Despite these changes, the Central Bank of Iraq guarantees that dollar deposits are guaranteed, and citizens who placed dollars with any Iraqi bank prior to or by 2024 have an inherent right to retrieve these sums in cash and US dollars.
The Central Bank has stated that the changes it is doing aim to bring the bank and the Iraqi financial sector in general into accordance with international compliance norms, preventing the dollar from reaching parties who are not permitted to access or speculate with it.
