The Central Bank of Iraq suspends the “Western Union” service for international financial transfer

The Central Bank of Iraq has decided to halt the “Western Union” service for foreign bank transfers until further notice, effective today, Thursday.

The company explained in a notice that, in accordance with the Central Bank of Iraq’s directives, the Western Union service was temporarily suspended as of 10-12-2023 in order to activate modern mechanisms and technologies to verify financial transactions, in accordance with international best practices and the Central Bank of Iraq’s instructions.

The notification informed the company’s clients that they would be alerted as soon as the service was reinstated.

In a crackdown on Iran’s dollar transactions, the US Treasury Department placed sanctions on 14 Iraqi institutions in July.

Last September, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Ali Mohsen Al-Alaq, said that the bank will discontinue “foreign transfers” the next year, while deciding to limit internal commercial transactions to dinars rather than US dollars, with the exception of those supplied to tourists.

It is worth noting that the Central Bank recently implemented a new procedure for auctioning foreign money in compliance with the Federal Bank’s rules and circumstances in order to track the dollar and prevent attempts to smuggle it overseas.