The Central Bank reveals the reason for depositing Iraqi oil money in America, 2 APRIL

  The Central Bank reveals the reason for depositing Iraqi oil money in America

Baghdad - Iraq Today:

The Central Bank of Iraq revealed the legal basis for depositing oil revenues in the US Federal Reserve.

According to documents issued by the Central Bank, "the legal basis for depositing oil revenues at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in the IRAQ2 alternative account to the DFI account is the expiration of the extension of the US President's Executive Order No. 13303 issued in March 2003, which granted immunity over Iraqi funds deposited in the then DFI Iraq Development Account, and the end of the United Nations protection over Iraq's funds that were granted to it under the UN Security Council Resolution No. 1483 of 2003 after the issuance of UN Resolution 1956 at the end of 2010."

The documents added, "Accordingly, the IRAQ2 account was opened, which is used to deposit the funds of Iraqi crude oil exports and is transferred to the account of the Central Bank of Iraq with the Federal Reserve Bank within a period of 24 hours from the receipt of these amounts to ensure that they are not exposed to the claims of creditors as they are funds belonging to the Iraqi government derived from the export of crude oil, and this mechanism has been organized through a (memorandum of understanding) signed between the Iraqi Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Iraq on 2/6/2014 for the purpose of organizing the work of the alternative IRAQ2 account. for the account of the Development Fund for Iraq and that this memorandum is the legal basis for the establishment of the said account."

"The immunity granted under these two documents covers sovereign funds only and does not include funds used for commercial purposes."

The documents explained, "With regard to the answer to the third paragraph, foreign reserves may be deposited with several external parties, central banks and financial institutions, and not only based in the Federal Reserve Bank, and that interest rates vary according to the investment segment, the duration of the investment and the institution with which the investment is made, in addition to that the carrier company is Orient Company, which is contracted with this bank to transport dollar shipments from the Federal Reserve Bank to Baghdad International Airport and with a security amount of (414,000) US dollars (four hundred and fourteen thousand dollars). US per shipment, and transportation fees of (216,310) US dollars (two hundred and sixteen thousand three hundred and ten US dollars) Department of Parliamentary Affairs, Parliamentary Oversight Section.

 She added that "it is not possible to transfer the revenues of the sale of oil to the interior because of the impossibility of carrying out financial operations for Iraq if the money is at home, and closing our account with the Federal Reserve Bank can expose Iraq to the risk of international claims, in addition to the inability to settle our payments in US dollars without an account in the Federal Reserve Bank or another US commercial bank."