A dialogue session discussing “electronic payment and its role in the economic future”...these are its details, 9 JAN

 A dialogue session discussing “electronic payment and its role in the economic future”...these are its details

The Electronic Payment Culture Platform in Iraq organized a dialogue session regarding electronic payment in the presence of many government and parliamentary figures.
 
The session, which was chaired by Ali Al-Hilli - Marketing Director at Miswak Company, and speakers, witnessed the presence of Sabah Al-Baghdadi: Vice President of the Iraq Traders Association,
Representative Hussein Arab, Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Labor and Non-Governmental Organizations Committee.

Adnan Asaad: Director General of the Information Technology and Payments Department at the Central Bank of Iraq, Ali Tariq: Executive Director of the Iraqi Private Banks League IPBL. Ahmed Kazem: Executive Director of Investments at the International Smart Card Company (QiKi).

The dialogue session, which was entitled “Electronic Payment and its Role in Shaping the Economic Future,” addressed the vision of the various sectors regarding electronic payment, where the point of view of Iraqi merchants was presented by Sabah Al-Baghdadi and the most important obstacles they face regarding the use of electronic payment tools, especially the aspect of not standardizing commissions. And the fees are in addition to the challenges that merchants faced during the previous period when using cards outside Iraq and stopping them without prior notice, stressing the need to ensure the stability of the work of electronic payment tools so that they are a safe and stable means for adoption by the merchant segment. Al-Baghdadi also addressed the obstacles of merchants with regard to tracking external transfers, which is considered Its delay and the lack of clarity of the reasons for this are a reason for the merchant segment to be exposed to embarrassment, calling on the Central Bank of Iraq to work to establish mechanisms and direct banks to enable the merchant to track his foreign transfers similar to the developed countries, regional and global.

The dialogue moved to Representative Hussein Arab, Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Work and Non-Governmental Organizations Committee, “for the purpose of discussing legislation and laws supporting electronic payment, the role of the Iraqi Council of Representatives in issuing legislation to regulate electronic payment and protect the users of these tools, and the importance of the private sector in general and the banking sector and financial institutions in particular in the success of this.” "The important project for the country to leave cash payment."

Adnan Asaad, Director General of the Information Technology and Payments Department at the Central Bank of Iraq, explained, "The importance of the transformation taking place in electronic payment, describing the year 2023 as the year of the great launch in the field of electronic payment, and that the Iraqi government, represented by the Iraqi Prime Minister - Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani, is very interested in achieving the best achievements in The field of electronic payment, and that follow-up is continuing by parliamentary and governmental bodies to activate electronic payment in Iraq.”

Adnan Asaad expressed his great optimism in the year 2024, as it will be the year of achieving great achievements in the field of electronic payment, stressing that the crisis that passed through the country in mid-2023, specifically the bad use of cards and electronic payment tools, had left a negative impact, but thanks to the measures that were taken in cooperation with... International financial institutions have addressed many problems and the electronic payment system has stabilized, indicating that the public should know the importance of opening bank accounts and using cards linked to bank accounts more since prepaid cards are intended for limited operations and this is the practice globally, and this was an answer to an inquiry about The issue of restricting the ceilings of prepaid cards, which occurred on the first of December of the previous year.”

Ali Al-Hilli continued the dialogue with Ali Tariq, Executive Director of the Iraqi Private Banks Association, “about the role of the private sector, especially private banks and financial institutions, to support the governmental and legislative approach to spreading electronic payment,” where Ali Tariq emphasized “the great role of financial institutions in this aspect and the role of the Association in supporting financial institutions.” To achieve the goals of spreading the culture of electronic payment, Mr. Ali Tariq stressed the importance of spreading the culture of electronic payment, due to its positive repercussions on the economy. He pointed out that electronic payment indicators are growing well, and there is a high response from the public in using bank cards, but we need greater interaction from Before retailers use POS.

He noted that "the government, the central bank, banks, and electronic payment companies have worked over the past period to develop the infrastructure of the electronic payment sector."

The dialogue session concluded with a talk by Ahmed Kazim, Executive Director of Investments at the International Smart Card Company (Ki), about “the importance of electronic payment and the role of electronic payment companies in promoting this culture and the importance of keeping up with developments in this field to provide high-level services to the public and encourage them to use electronic payment tools,” stressing that the company (Ki) has taken the decision to transfer investment in advertising into loyalty programs and discounts offered to the public and merchants for the purpose of encouraging the digital transformation of payments.”    link