Does Fitch's Rating Affect The Government's Only Financial "Arm"? An Expert Explains, 19 MARCH

 Does Fitch's Rating Affect The Government's Only Financial "Arm"? An Expert Explains

Time: 03/18/2024 11:51:13 Read: 1,898 times  {Economic: Al-Furat News} An economic expert reduced the impact of the decision of the international credit rating agency {Fitch}, after it announced the reduction of the credit rating of the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) to {CCC+}.

Abdul Rahman Al-Mashhadani told {Al-Furat News} agency, “This classification is not new because it is an old classification, and it has been Iraq’s classification for years, although it is not good, and the Iraqi Trade Bank does not need bank credit because it is the government’s agent and finances government purchases and does not borrow, but rather it is He makes payments to the government, and talking about anything other than that is outside the jurisdiction.”

He added, "The international agency {Fitch} indicates that Iraqi banking institutions do not have complete transparency, and this is an indicator that we have had for years. The most important thing is that whoever is in charge of managing the Iraqi Trade Bank is being replaced on charges of corruption and mismanagement, so the problem is with the internal environment, not the external one, and this is what affects Iraq's classification." ".

Al-Mashhadani stressed, “The Fitch rating did not add anything new and does not affect Iraq.”

The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, said in a previous press statement, “Credit ratings are linked to the bank’s ability to obtain credit facilities, and the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) deals with full coverage of credits in advance, and therefore its documentary credits and financing of government imports will not be exposed to problems.”

He added, "Iraq is rated (b) negative, which is not a good classification, and no unit can be higher than the country's classification. TBI will remain a semi-central bank due to its large number of correspondents, the strength of its capital, and its high profits."

It is noteworthy that TBI Bank is the only Iraqi bank that has the right to send remittances abroad, due to the debts incurred by the country that prevent sending remittances and operations with the Rasheed and Al-Rafidain banks.   LINK