Iraq Economic News and Points To Ponder Late Thursday Evening 9-10-26
The Kurdistan Regional Government Has Decided To Immediately Close All Forex Companies And Ban The Trading Of Digital Currencies.
Erbil (Kurdistan24) - The Kurdistan Regional Government has launched a broad campaign to combat illegal currency trading, ordering the immediate and comprehensive closure of all companies and offices operating in the field of electronic trading "Forex", with a strict emphasis on prohibiting the trading of digital and encrypted currencies.
An official circular issued by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Kurdistan Region tasked the Ministry of Interior and the relevant security agencies with immediately beginning to close the headquarters and offices of companies and centers trading in digital currencies and “Forex” platforms that are not licensed in all cities and governorates of the region.
Decision-Making Principles:
Compliance with Baghdad and Central Bank decisions: These procedures are based on official instructions issued by the Central Bank of Iraq, which criminalize and classify any dealings with digital currencies and platforms not subject to the official financial system as illegal and prohibited banking activities.
Immediate closure and field prosecution: The Ministry of Interior is tasked, in coordination with relevant institutions and departments, with raiding and sealing all sites and centers that carry out this activity outside the scope of the law and applicable instructions.
Preventing evasion and changing addresses: The directive stressed the need to pursue all companies and networks that trade under pseudonyms, or resort to tricks and changing addresses and business activities to circumvent the decision.
Protecting The Financial Security Of Citizens
The Kurdistan Regional Government affirmed that this decisive measure stems from a commitment to preserving the financial stability of citizens and protecting their savings, preventing the draining of capital abroad, as well as containing the risks of fraud, financial scams, and the serious losses resulting from unreliable speculation on these unregulated platforms.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Has Ordered The Closure Of All Forex Companies
Summary of the news
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has ordered the closure of all Forex companies.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is launching a massive campaign to eradicate illegal currency trade.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) insists on a complete ban on trading in digital currencies.
Thursday, September 10, 2026, the Presidency of the Office of the Council of Ministers in an official generalization ordered the Ministry of Interior to immediately close all companies and offices of electronic exchange (forex) and insists on a complete ban on dealing in digital currencies.
The main themes of the decision:
Compliance with Baghdad's decisions: The measures are based on the official guidelines of the Central Bank of Iraq.
Any transactions with digital currencies and forex platforms have been deemed illegal.
Immediate closure: The Ministry of Interior, in coordination with the relevant agencies, has been instructed to close all places and centers that do this without a license and outside the guidelines.
Prevention of evasion: The decision also applies to all companies and groups that conduct the same activities under different names, scams and other business addresses.
This new step of the government in order to protect the financial security of citizens, prevent the waste of capital and prevent the fraud and financial losses faced by citizens due to uncertain transactions in this field. https://channel8.com/kurdish/news/231261
The Caretaker Kurdistan Regional Government has instructed the Ministry of Interior to enforce the closure of unauthorized Forex and foreign exchange offices across the region.
https://x.com/Channel8English/status/2098018231617245372
81 Banks And Financial Institutions In Iraq... Why Are Most Of Them Absent From Global Banking Lists?
September 10, 2026Last updated: September 10, 2026
81 banks in Iraq... Why are most of them absent from the global rankings?
Al-Mustaqilla - Iraq has a numerically large banking network, comprising dozens of government, commercial, Islamic, and foreign bank branches, but the paradox emerges when moving from the number of banks to their real weight on the international banking map; this large number is not reflected in a similar presence in the most prominent global bank rankings.
According to the approved lists of operating banks, the Iraqi banking system includes 8 government banks, 24 local commercial banks, and 31 local Islamic banks, in addition to 16 branches of foreign banks and two representative offices, bringing the total number to about 81 banking institutions and representative offices.
However, research into the most prominent international rankings, most notably the Top 1000 World Banks list issued by The Banker magazine, which is mainly based on the size of Tier 1 Capital, reveals that the Iraqi presence in the global list has remained very limited compared to the number of banks operating in the country.
One of the most prominent documented Iraqi cases is the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI), which in previous years managed to enter the list of the world's top 1,000 banks. According to officially published data from the bank, its ranking reached 319th globally in 2020 according to the Tier 1 Capital metric, after advancing 26 places compared to the previous year.
However, this ranking is historical and should not be treated as a current ranking for 2026. Even in the latest edition of The Banker's list, there is no documented current ranking in open public data that can be attributed to all Iraqi banks or even most of them individually.
This highlights one of the most significant problems in understanding the reality of Iraqi banks: the existence of dozens of banks does not mean that each one has a global ranking. Major international rankings are based on capital, assets, profitability, financial strength, market reach, and balance sheet quality, while the majority of small and medium-sized banks do not even appear on these lists.
The difference becomes even more apparent when comparing Iraq to the Gulf banking systems. Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, while having fewer banks in some cases, have a stronger presence in global rankings because several of their banks possess significantly larger capital, assets, profitability rates, and international reach.
In Iraq, the IMF notes that the banking system remains heavily concentrated around two major state-owned banks, while private banks remain relatively small and face challenges related to limited capital, a limited customer base, and competition with state-owned banks. The IMF also pointed out that the dominance of large state-owned banks has hindered the emergence of stronger private banks.
The IMF also pointed to the need to complete the restructuring of state-owned banks, modernize the banking system, and expand international correspondent banking relationships, as essential steps for integrating the Iraqi banking sector more broadly into the global financial system.
Most telling is the risk assessment conducted by S&P Global Ratings on banking systems worldwide. In its July 2026 update, the agency placed the Iraqi banking system in the BICRA Group 10. ( S&P Global )
This ranking does not mean that Iraq is ranked tenth globally; rather, the S&P scale ranges from Group 1 to Group 10, with Group 1 representing the lowest-risk systems and Group 10 representing the highest-risk systems. Thus, Iraq falls within the highest levels of banking risk according to this international scale.
A regional comparison reveals the widening gap. In the same S&P assessment, Saudi Arabia was in Group 3, the UAE and Qatar in Group 4, Kuwait in Group 3, Jordan in Group 6, while Iraq remained in Group 10.
This does not mean that all Iraqi banks are in trouble or in similar situations, because the BICRA rating relates to banking risks at the national and financial system levels, not to an individual rating for each bank. Rather, it reflects the environment in which these institutions operate and the strength of the surrounding regulatory, economic, and financial system.
S&P also notes that the Iraqi economy is highly sensitive to oil market fluctuations, and that its high dependence on oil and political and economic volatility affect the operating environment for banks. The agency has described the Iraqi banking environment in its reports as relatively weak compared to other banking systems.
Here The Real Question Becomes: How Many Banks Does Iraq Have? But: How Many Of Them Are Capable Of Competing Globally?
The existence of dozens of banks does not automatically translate into a strong sector unless there are banks with large capitalizations, stable deposit bases, sustainable profitability, strong governance, effective compliance systems, international correspondent relationships, and credit ratings comparable with regional and international institutions.
The presence of 16 branches of foreign banks in Iraq does not mean that they are included in the global classification of Iraqi banks, because the classification that a banking group such as Standard Chartered or others may have is due to the parent bank and its global group, and not to its branch operating inside Iraq as an independent Iraqi bank.
Therefore, describing all 81 banks as having a “global ranking” is inaccurate. The vast majority do not even appear in any of the most prominent rankings of the world’s largest banks, while a limited number appear only in individual international data or assessments.
Between the large number and the weak international presence, it seems that the next challenge facing the Central Bank of Iraq will not only be maintaining dozens of banking licenses, but also building a less fragmented, stronger and more competitive sector.
The ongoing reform of the banking sector may, in the next phase, lead to a restructuring of the market, raising capital, compliance and governance requirements, and perhaps reducing the number of weak banks or merging some of them, in exchange for building larger institutions that are more capable of connecting with the international financial system.
In Conclusion, The Situation Can Be Summarized In One Sentence:
Iraq has dozens of banks, but it does not yet have dozens of banks with global influence.
The number has reached about 81 banking institutions and representative offices, but the presence in major global rankings remains limited, at a time when the Iraqi banking system is still classified among the highest risk groups by S&P.
This puts the sector to a real test: Will the upcoming reforms succeed in transforming the “abundance of banks” into “banking strength,” or will the map of Iraqi banks witness downsizing, mergers, and extensive restructuring in the coming years
https://mustaqila.com/81-مصرفًا-ومؤسسة-مصرفية-في-العراق-لماذا/