Central Bank: Digital currency reduces cash flow outside banks, 22 MARCH

  Central Bank: Digital currency reduces cash flow outside banks

On Thursday, March 20, 2025, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Ali Al-Alaq, described digital currency as "limiting the flow of cash outside banks." He also spoke of a plan to establish a data center that would serve as a foundation for digital transformation.

The Iraqi government faces challenges in managing dinar liquidity, as it suffers from a chronic shortage of this currency, affecting its ability to meet its financial obligations to pay employee salaries, repay debts, and finance projects.

Al-Alaq said in a press statement followed by Al-Jabal, "Financial technologies are developing rapidly, in line with the requirements of the financial and banking sector in terms of speed, accuracy, and economic efficiency, in addition to transparency and oversight. The reality of the digital revolution is imposing itself on all sectors, including the financial and banking sector, which stands to benefit most from the major transformations taking place."

 He added, "Digital currency can serve many purposes, limiting the flow of cash outside banks and achieving a high degree of transparency, as funds can be tracked, whether in consumption, investment, savings, or even in legitimate and illegitimate businesses. It also provides important databases for analytical purposes, not just for the movement of paper money. In addition, digital currency offers economies of scale, including the ability to print and track currency."

 Al-Alaq explained, "We have begun taking steps in coordination with international organizations to review initial experiments in the digital currency file, which we do not wish to delay." He noted, " There are existing experiments in some countries in the region, and we are also following up with the Arab Monetary Fund to develop appropriate steps in this direction, and what is required is infrastructure."

 He continued, "The Central Bank possesses advanced infrastructure. The new bank building houses a sophisticated data center, and we are working to establish a data center that will represent a successful foundation for digital transformation."

 The Central Bank of Iraq previously announced its move to issue a digital currency as an alternative to paper currency, a shift that could reshape the payments landscape and the national economy entirely.

 This move comes in response to "increasing challenges in managing traditional cash," amid a global trend toward financial digitization.

 Al-Alaq said, "The financial and banking system will witness fundamental transformations, including the decline of paper currencies and their replacement by digital payments by central banks." 

He explained that "the Central Bank is moving to create its own digital currency to gradually replace paper transactions, as is happening at some central banks around the world  link