Sandy Ingram
Iraq is in trouble with the US Treasury Department...Officially Iraq is a member of SWIFT but in practice...
many of the country's banks have been incredibly slow to get on board preferring to stick with older more opaque methods of moving money including cash...
One of the primary reasons for this hesitation is a profound concern over privacy and sovereignty. Iraq's financial system has traditionally operated with a level of discretion fundamentally incompatible with the kind of radical transparency SWIFT demands...
The United States Treasury...sees Iraq's incomplete SWIFT usage as a gaping loophole that undermines their entire sanctions regime on the region and they are losing patience.
This puts Iraq in an incredibly difficult position, trying to appease a powerful ally without completely alienating a powerful neighbor.