2024-02-08T11:02:46+00:00
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/ Mahmoud Dagher, an economic expert and former director general of the Central Bank, ruled out on Thursday the collapse of the banking system in Iraq as a result of the sanctions imposed by the US Treasury on a group of banks in the country.
Dagher told Agency, “The collapse of the banking system due to these sanctions and restrictions will not happen despite the continued pressure and the severity that harms these banks.”
He added that there are no real reasons for these sanctions, adding that the US Treasury only restricted these banks from obtaining dollars.
Dagher explained that “because there are no reasons, and because the case is a matter of suspicion, therefore they are not penalties, but rather a restriction on those banks, but they result in harm to them, to the people, and to the import financing process.”
He stated that the sanctions came based on the banks’ dealings with suspicious financial transfers during the past year 2023.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad Hussein had called on the United States of America on Tuesday to reconsider the sanctions imposed on 21 Iraqi banks that contribute to financing food basket items for low-income families, according to what the Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced today, Wednesday.
In July 2023, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 14 Iraqi banks in a campaign against Iran’s dollar dealings.
An official document issued by the Central Bank of Iraq in February showed that 8 Iraqi banks were banned from participating in the foreign currency buying and selling window.
Iraq has more than 70 private banks, a relatively new feature in a sector that was almost entirely state-controlled until the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime after the US invasion in 2003.