With huge profits.. a private bank “takes over” the currency auction and demands that the Central Bank reveal the fate of the remittances – Urgent
Today, Wednesday (October 11, 2023) , Representative Hussein Arab called on the Central Bank of Iraq to disclose the transfers of private banks participating in purchasing the dollar at the official rate from the bank in its daily auction.
He added, “This bank earns $3 million daily in commissions only,” noting that “for every million dollars these banks earn 100 million dinars, and they profit many times that by purchasing millions of dollars from the bank daily.”
Arab said, “I think that these banks hope that work will not be disrupted on Friday and Saturday, in order to stop the currency auction at the Central Bank and cause the loss of all these large profits.”
For days, the dollar has been recording an increase in the parallel market in Iraq, as the exchange rate exceeded the barrier of 1,600 dinars.
The economic expert, Ahmed Al-Tamimi, held “the continuous black transfers on a daily basis and in all Iraqi cities responsible for the rise in the exchange rate,” considering them “the basis of the crisis, and that the Central Bank is completely unable to find any solutions to these transfers despite its cooperation with the American side, and for this reason we expect that the dollar will “It will continue to rise over the next few days.”
The Central Bank took several measures and decisions to prevent the circulation of the dollar in local markets above the official price (1320), but to no avail, despite the fact that the only source of the dollar is the bank and despite the fact that those who take the dollar, which are private banks and exchange companies, are known to it, but it is unable to control them and oblige them not to leak the dollar. Through fake transfers, according to observers.
Earlier, independent MP Hadi Al-Salami confirmed, “The current failure in the US dollar issue is borne by all the Iraqi governments that have ruled the country since 2003 until now. The government of Muhammad Shiaa Al-Sudani has pledged to solve the crisis by establishing mechanisms that prevent the smuggling of hard currency, but it “You did not succeed in this file.”
Recently, the US government rejected a request for Iraq to obtain an amount of one billion dollars in cash from the Federal Reserve Bank, from Iraqi funds generated from oil revenues, due to its opposition to efforts to curb excessive circulation of the dollar and stop illicit cash flows to countries banned by the US Treasury.
The day before yesterday, Monday, the Parliamentary Finance Committee revealed its move to investigate the Jordan National Bank’s acquisition of 70% of the currency selling window in Iraq.
Committee member Moeen Al-Kazemi told Baghdad Al-Youm, “The Parliamentary Finance Committee will move to investigate the issue of the Jordan National Bank’s acquisition of 70% of the currency selling window, and we will work to host officials at the Central Bank in order to follow up on this file.”
Al-Kadhimi stated, “The government and the Central Bank are still working to launch reform packages in order to control the rise in dollar prices and end the difference in the dollar exchange rate in the parallel market, and the coming days may witness the launch of new reform packages.”