"Tidbits From TNT" Saturday 6-10-2023

Jun 10

TNT:

Tishwash: The release of 3 billion dollars of frozen Iranian funds in Iraq

The head of the joint Iranian-Iraqi Chamber of Commerce, Yahya Al-Ishaq, announced today, Saturday, that part of the Iranian debt owed to Iraq has been liberated.

Al-Ishaq said, in press statements, that "part of these refunds from Iraq has been allocated to the needs of Iranian pilgrims."

He added, "Another part of it was paid for the supply of basic commodities."

And he continued, "According to the news received, the amount paid is estimated at about $3 billion."

Iran has previously announced that the volume of Baghdad's debts in its favor amounted to 18 billion dollars, stressing that the United States only allowed the payment of 500 million dollars of these debts link

Tishwash: What does JPMorgan's willingness to support Iraqi banks mean?

The US "JP Morgan" bank expressed its willingness to support Iraqi trade financing operations, during a meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, on Friday.

He called on the Iraqi Central Bank, "JP Morgan" to open a representative office in Iraq, "promising it to provide the necessary support to facilitate this step because it represents positive repercussions on the Iraqi economy in general," according to what the Central Bank of Iraq reported on its official website .

In an interview with " Al-Hurra " channel , the economist, Mahmoud Dagher, says that "GB Morgan" is one of the largest banks in the world, and it has great weight in the "correspondence process" between banks in the world.

Step importance

Regarding the importance of the bank to Iraq, the expert points out that the bank is classified in a high order, so Iraqi banks need it as an intermediary to transfer funds to exporting companies around the world, especially those that use the dollar.

The expert believes that Iraqi banks need classified banks that can help them in light of changing the new international transfer rules, and that Iraq has responded to its compliance rules.

For Dagher, JPMorgan could help Iraqi banks with money transfers and "capacity building" operations to establish new qualifications. As "most of the banks in the private sector...are modern and need training and development," as he put it.

According to Dagher, Iraqi banks need safe, classified banks at the level of “GB Morgan” for such operations, because “Iraq is one of the countries whose imports reach $60 billion, and this is a large amount,” in addition to government imports that are just over $10 billion. dollars, according to the economist.

The expert believes that whenever large banks, including JPMorgan, are able to secure credits and remittances and transfer them to the "final recipient" in European countries and the United States, "we will be able to provide better service to Iraqi merchants, while applying compliance rules."

Dagher concludes that the bank "has great weight and its presence in Iraq will encourage others to enter the market, and there is a list of banks that exchange information with 'JP Morgan' to be accepted by the bank as a correspondent," according to the Iraqi expert.

The Central Bank of Iraq said that the vice president of JP Morgan Bank, Daniel Zeliko, praised "the recent measures taken by the Central Bank of Iraq in the field of combating money laundering and terrorist financing and the adoption of international standards in money transfers." link

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Tishwash: Central Bank Governor: Dollar exchange rates will drop significantly in the coming days

Today, Saturday, the Central Bank revealed its plans to raise financial and gold reserves, and while it specified its procedures for installing prepaid devices, it clarified its plans for restructuring government banks.

The Governor of the Central Bank, Ali Al-Alaq, said in a statement to the official agency, followed by “NAS”, (June 10, 2023), that “packages of instructions for financing in foreign currencies abroad have been launched with the launch of the electronic platform,” noting that “the aim of this package is to meet the requests of All the needs of the Iraqi economic sectors, in addition to the needs of citizens for travel, treatment and study.

Al-Alaq added, "These packages contributed to organizing a large part of the trade process in Iraq through the entry of various sectors into the official channels of transfer, and mitigated exchange rate fluctuations, which at the beginning of the launch of the platform in the market reached approximately 160 thousand dinars per dollar." , stressing that "there is a significant improvement in the work of the trade financing platform and the cash payment platform, and that proceeding in this framework will contribute to a significant decrease in the exchange rate in the coming days."

And he continued, "There is no need to launch new urgent packages at the present time, as the operations are proceeding consistently through electronic platforms with the presence of some operational obstacles or obstacles related to international commercial operations related to financing. Each case is resolved separately, and therefore we see that the situation is going well." towards stability and there is no need to take additional measures.

And regarding setting $2,000 as a maximum limit for spending on Visa and MasterCard cards abroad, Al-Allaq explained, “The aim of setting ceilings for cash withdrawals from payment cards is to avoid misuse of these cards by weak-minded people and currency speculation, since continuing with the previous situation exposes the financial sector to a great threat.” And pushes for more currency smuggling.”

Regarding the operations of seizing cards at airports, the governor of the Central Bank said: “We believe that this issue has ended or is nearing completion through the circulars issued by this bank, which obligated banks and payment companies to issue one card for each customer and use the biometric fingerprint, and to set ceilings for cash withdrawals and the cooperation of the security services.” with this bank.

Regarding the insistence of some merchants on buying dollars from the parallel market, Al-Alaq said: "The insistence of some merchants on such transactions despite the facilities provided by this bank constitutes a factor of instability in the exchange rate and also exposes the owners of these transactions to legal accountability," stressing that "The failure of small traders to turn into companies that were allowed to enter the window and their insistence on financing through informal methods by buying currency from the secondary market puts pressure on the exchange rate towards an upward trend, and therefore we urge these merchants to establish small companies to enter the window and obtain dollars at the official rate."

He pointed out that "the Central Bank's procedures in monitoring the decision to deal in Iraqi dinars instead of dollars by investment companies and the sale of housing units in investment complexes are carried out through coordination with the National Investment Commission and the office of the Chairman of the Supreme Committee for the Support of the Dinar and law enforcement agencies, as well as the facilities provided by these The complexes, all sides agreed to accept the Iraqi dinar.

Regarding the central bank's plans to implement the government bank restructuring program, Al-Alaq explained, "The central bank's plans to implement the restructuring program continue, but the progress of this project is slow, because of its association with other parties related to the Federal Bureau of Financial Supervision and the Ministry of Finance, or because of the weak human capabilities available to it." Government banks," pointing out that "the Central Bank continues to provide support to these banks to improve the quality of data, including conducting an assessment of the quality of assets for the Rafidain and Rasheed banks, as an international auditing company was contracted for this purpose, and this bank bore the cost of contracting with this company."

And he continued: “As for private banks, the control process continues through the supervisory tools of this bank, and at the same time work is being done to update the instructions and controls regulating banking work and in cooperation with international institutions in order to implement international standards and international best practices, and the most prominent of these projects are the following: -

1- Draft supervisory work guide / risk management controls in commercial banks.

2- Draft capital adequacy controls.

3- The Scorecard Project for Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance Standards (ESC), where this bank issued the first report on the results of (ESC) on 1/23/2023, which is the first of its kind that reflects on the extent to which environmental, social and corporate governance standards are applied in the Iraqi banking sector.

4- Work is currently underway to update the disclosures and financial statements of commercial banks, in cooperation with the Middle East Technical Assistance Center (METAC).

5- A project to develop regulatory tools to deal with systemically important local banks.

Regarding the Central Bank's procedures for installing prepaid devices that were installed in a number of locations, Al-Alaq said that "based on the decision of the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers No. 23044 of 2023, paragraph (2) thereof, this bank received a number of requests from ministries and government and private institutions, and it was completed." Addressing it to approach companies providing electronic payment services and request offers to supply, install and operate point-of-sale (POS) devices according to the mechanism and strategy of this bank.

He pointed out that “the above entities were provided with the names of payment service providers licensed by this bank to actively (processor, collector) for the purpose of concluding the agreements required to serve the collection of funds electronically for financial dues through (POS) devices,” noting that “electronic payment service provider companies can Licensors collect amounts due for services provided by institutions and government departments electronically, whether in connection with electronic payment gateways or directly through the deployment of point-of-sale (POS) devices.

He stressed that "the electronic bill payment project has already been launched for a number of billed departments affiliated to the ministries (construction, housing, public works, trade, electricity, interior - passports)."

With regard to the procedures of the Central Bank regarding monitoring money laundering operations and recovering funds smuggled abroad, Al-Alaq stated that, “Based on Article 9 (9 / First / A) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. (39), the work of the Anti-Money Laundering Office And the financing of terrorism is receiving or obtaining reports or information about transactions that are suspected of including the proceeds of a predicate crime, money laundering, or terrorist financing from the reporting authorities. Use of prepaid cards by criminals.

He went on to say, "Following the reports received, the office took the following actions:

A- The Ministry of Finance / General Authority of Customs was approached for the purpose of preventing the issuance of any card that does not bear the name of the card holder (prepaid cards / cards).

B- The office issued a circular to the companies and banks that issued these cards, which included the following:

1- The ceiling of the aforementioned card is (10,000,000) dinars (ten million Iraqi dinars), and the holder of the aforementioned card may withdraw cash up to (3,000) dollars (three thousand dollars) or its equivalent in the currencies of other countries outside Iraq per month.

2- Due diligence measures are taken when recharging, based on Article (10) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. (39) of 2015 and the controls and instructions issued thereunder.

3- The company or the bank has the right to issue only one prepaid card for the same customer, with the necessity that these cards be issued in the customer’s name, and the customer’s name is recorded on the card.

He pointed out that "the office carries out investigations and analysis of the information received from the above authorities, on the basis of which the defaulters are identified from individuals, companies and banks, and a number of suspicious transactions have been referred to the courts specialized in combating money laundering and terrorist financing, based on Article (9 / first / c). ) of the above law, which states: Reports that are based on reasonable grounds for suspicion of money laundering, terrorist financing or predicate offenses shall be referred to the Presidency of the Public Prosecution Office to take legal action in their regard, and to notify the relevant authorities of that.

Regarding plans to raise financial and gold reserves in the central bank, Al-Alaq indicated that “the two most important factors that determine the accumulation and depletion of foreign reserves are external, as the accumulation of reserves is mainly linked to the amount of oil exports and the price of a barrel, while the depletion of reserves takes place through importing goods and services as well as transfers.” Foreign Affairs," stressing that "under normal conditions, this bank aims to build a sustainable level of foreign reserves while ensuring high liquidity and relatively good returns."

He continued, "With regard to gold, this bank places increasing its holdings of gold on a high level of importance, and by the end of this year, this bank aims to increase its holdings by at least the equivalent of $500 million."

And about the housing loan initiative between Al-Alaq, that “the housing loans did not stop, as the circular of this bank No. 6/5/988 on 4/27/2023 in paragraph (5) of it indicated that the financing of applications submitted to the Real Estate Bank and the Housing Fund within the allocated allocation would continue.”

To them, it is derived after that by reallocating 50% of the total loan installments previously granted, whose total loans financed by the Central Bank through its initiative amount to more than 10 trillion dinars. link

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