International Conference on Payments and Banking Technologies: A Catalyst for Digital Transformation in Iraq 2024
The International Conference on Payments and Banking Technologies, held in Iraq in 2024, serves as a pivotal platform for accelerating digital transformation in the country's financial sector. As an advisor to the Association of Banks, this conference is seen as a crucial opportunity to foster innovation and modernization, aligning with global trends in finance and technology.
Importance of Digital Transformation in Iraq's Banking Sector
Digital transformation in Iraq's banking sector is not only a necessity but also a strategic imperative. By embracing digital technologies, banks can enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experience, and stay competitive in an increasingly digitalized global economy.
Key Themes at the Conference
The conference focuses on several key themes, including: Innovation in Payments: Highlighting advancements in payment systems, the conference explores how new technologies can streamline transactions and reduce costs. Regulatory Framework: Discussions on the evolving regulatory landscape, ensuring that digital transformation initiatives are compliant with national and international standards.Cybersecurity Measures: Addressing the critical issue of data protection, the conference delves into strategies for safeguarding financial information in the digital age. Financial Inclusion: Exploring how digital banking can reach underbanked populations, promoting financial inclusion and economic empowerment.
Global Digital Summit: A Parallel Event
In conjunction with the International Conference on Payments and Banking Technologies, the Global Digital Summit, organized by the World Bank, will also take place in Iraq. This summit will convene government officials, private sector leaders, and thought leaders to discuss digitalization's role in development.
Collaborations and Partnerships
The conference will feature collaborative efforts between the Iraqi Private Banks League and global technology companies. Huawei, for instance, will share its expertise in digital transformation, showcasing banking systems designed to enhance financial inclusion and efficiency.
Digital Transformation in Iraq: Challenges and Opportunities
The journey towards digital transformation in Iraq presents both challenges and opportunities. Corruption, lack of infrastructure, and resistance to change are some of the hurdles that need to be addressed. However, the potential for improved service delivery, job creation, and economic growth is significant.
The Advisor to the Association of Iraqi Private Banks, Samir Al-Nusiri, on Thursday, said that the International Conference on Payments and Banking Technologies, which will be held under the auspices of Engineer Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, Prime Minister for September 14 and 15, and in joint cooperation between the Prime Minister’s Office, the Central Bank, the Association of Iraqi Private Banks and in the presence of governors of international banks and specialized companies to support and accelerate the transition to digital government and the transition from the monetary economy to the digital economy.
The conference will discuss 16 axes in which it focuses on the role of the government, the Central Bank and the Association of Banks on developing payments inside Iraq, using technology to improve financial inclusion, developing information technology, establishing digital banks, using artificial intelligence in banking services, using modern technologies in loans, compliance, risk management, combating money laundering, terrorist financing and combating bank fraud.
The results of the government role and the efforts exerted by the Central Bank, banks, electronic payment companies and supporting companies that have been achieved since the issuance of the decisions that
It was issued by the Council of Ministers in 2023 to activate, stimulate and support the digital transformation, and the results recorded a qualitative surge in the volume of transactions in electronic payment processes and the use of modern banking technologies.
Al-Nusairi said, in an interview with “Economy News”, that “the Central Bank of Iraq and the Association of Banks are working side by side in the implementation of the government program in the twelfth axis (financial and banking reform) and the direction of the Prime Minister in supporting electronic payment, and that the achieved so far confirms the rapid steps and joint cooperation to move to bridge the technical gap between Iraq and the countries of the world in this field. In 2023, the amounts processed through the national segment witnessed a significant increase, reflecting the development of infrastructure and the expansion of the use of electronic payment channels and the impact of the campaign launched by the Prime Minister to activate electronic payment operations in general, and in the government sector in particular.”
Al-Nusairi added that “these upward trends continued to develop in 2024, as the amounts processed in the national division systems reached more than (2) trillion Iraqi dinars in July alone, compared to (800) billion dinars in the same month of 2023, after which it became (1) trillion dinars in January 2024, and government payments also witnessed an additional rise, reaching (912) billion Iraqi dinars last July compared to (287) million dinars from the same month of 2023.”
He pointed out that “the payment operations at gas stations in Baghdad alone increased significantly, recording more than (44) billion dinars in July this year, compared to (183) million dinars in July of the year 2023 and (4.5) billion dinars in December 2023.”
He stressed: “A significant increase in the number of POS to reach more than (50) thousand points of sale this year compared to nearly (11) thousand pos at the beginning of 2023, and thousands of them in government institutions after it was zero before the launch of the campaign in June 2023.”
Welcome everyone to the big call tonight. It is Tuesday, September 10th and you're listening to the big call. Thanks everybody for tuning in. We did reach a another milestone on last Thursday's call, when we hit 19 million listeners internationally, and that as a result of the fine work that the satellite team has done on the Starlink satellite system. So thank you very much for that Sat Team. Welcome, every body welcome to big call universe, wherever you're listening from.
This is really where we need to be right now, when it comes to the intel tonight, it had been relatively quiet for a few days, and then it opened up a little bit yesterday, and it opened up more today. And I can tell you where we believe we are based on the input that I have so far -- it looks like, first of all, we will start with Iraq – we haven't talked too much about Iraq recently but I got some information today that I think is really going to make a difference.
We knew that all new rates came up on the screens , on forex, Sunday night, the Forex reopens at 7 o'clock, its 5 o'clock Eastern Time on Sunday - and it’s been down for 48 hours - it comes up every Sunday at 5 o clock –
We were expecting all new rates populate on Sunday - Now typically we don’t see those until Monday - either bank screen rates or redemption center screen rates. We did get word yesterday – Monday - that we had all new rates on all currencies at the banks - now today, and I think there might be a reason why we did not see rates on redemption center screens yet.
I hope tomorrow is a different story. But as of right now, today, they were not on redemption center screens, and I think I know why. The reason I believe that's the case is because bank screen rates, although they will be good - will not be as high as Redemption center screens, redemption center screens will have the highest rates – we know that - we’ve known it for years, and it's just coming to prove it.
When both bank screens and redemption screens have been up with rates that they could see, they could think they could prove that. They proved it that was the case, that Redemption Centers were higher. In fact, I'll tell you, the rate on the dinar on the redemption center screen was three times the amount that was on the bank screen. The Dong was twice as high as the bank screen rate.
So I think reason they might not been up today was maybe they just did not want to have the latest best rates visible to redemption center staff.
Now continuing on Iraq – remember we used to have, I say, you said we've been using CBI for Central Bank of Iraq.
That's going away - they're using the term Sovereign Bank of Iraq, SBI – Sovereign Bank of Iraq, and I believe it may begin to take place tomorrow - that change could actually be seen. I don't know what the website is, I don't they have a brand new website or not I don’t know if they are reconfiguring the CBI site. Just don't have that confirmed yet,
But what we were able to confirm was there was need Sunday, between Alak of Iraq and several other individuals that I won't name, that you would recognize, and they were determining and confirming a rate on the Iraqi Dinar, and that would be the rate that would be considered the international rate, or the rate on the SBI, Sovereign Bank of Iraq. That's got a really nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sovereign Bank of Iraq.
Central banks all over the globe are gone away – or are in the process of being eliminated. But the idea of a sovereign bank of name the country is really what we're looking at. It may have different names for us, our Federal Reserve was our bank from the United States Central Bank, and now it's the US Treasury - which, as you guys know, is not in Washington, DC, on a Paiute Reservation in Reno, Nevada, okay, Paiute, Indian Reservation.
Why? Because it's private Indian land and safe to have it there. It's a good safe place to have it. It may be temporary, but that's where it is right now
So that is really good news, I think, to have that rate and they have it where we should be able to see it soon - possibly as early as tomorrow,
Alright – let’s go beyond Iraq, and the SBI, also, the Iraqi dinar is to be traded on the ISX the Iraqi Stock Exchange - ISX - also on the Forex which it has been - supposed to be on the Forex again tomorrow, possibly with a new rate. It should be on there, and then, of course, on the SBI site itself.
So that's what we have on the dinar right now. Still have contract rate for the Iraqi dinar, I've told you, is extremely high and is tied to and is the same as the rate that Iraq is selling a barrel of oil for to other countries like Egypt, like Turkey, etc. wherever else they’re selling it - So it's a very good rate.
They had dropped a little bit. - Now it's back up. Of course, it's always subject to change, and their selling price of a barrel of oil might vary. Okay - That's great news, and they will offer us – from my understanding is they will offer us who have Iraqi Dinar - the contract rate for the Dinar - they should offer that to us. Okay, that's good – that’s really good news .
Let's go beyond that. Let's talk about where we are with our timing.
One person that’s been known by the community - and very well known - is suggesting that it's highly possible that we get notified tomorrow, if not, then Thursday, you can guess who that might be - but that is really, really good news, and the other information is that redemption center operatives or leaders were to have received an email from a certain person that's over all the redemption centers East of the Mississippi River, sort of divided the country a little bit, and this leader wants to get the emails out, which were from Treasury and Wells Fargo, to get those out to everybody that is a leader in the redemption centers east of the Mississippi -
Now, doesn't mean that the only one to get it, just means that that was this person's responsibility, other people as we go for the rest in the country, will have that same responsibility and will have gotten those emails out, provided the green light was given by Treasury to do that.
We heard about that last day or so, maybe a little bit longer than that, and it's kind of like if nothing changes, that's when it should have gone out. Let’s see, couple hours before, three hours before the big call.
Now what about notifications? That gets it out to the redemption centers, what about notifying tier 4B “us” – the internet group, let's just say tier four, which would include the Admiral's groups. And there are several, several of those – I think, 22 or 23 different groups under the admiral and it may not be the same Admiral, by the way.
So here's the thing, those - all of us in 4B and 4A should be getting notified either tonight, overnight tonight or tomorrow, now the exchanges we believe, could start tomorrow, or we might just setting our appointments for starting on Thursday – We’ll see – we’ll see what it is - We won't know that until we receive those nails from Wells Fargo servers.
All right, let’s talk about something. So that's something we can look forward to, hopefully tomorrow. In addition to that, we've had the servers for Social Security down for the last five days, and we believe the Reason is they have been inter connecting to the Starlink satellite system with new algorithms that may or may not contain an increase in Social Security.
We don't know that yet – but chances are I'll find out about it tonight or tomorrow after the call. It'll be a mute point. So the good news is that I believe they were down after last Wednesday, which was, which was a Social Security payout day - as you guys know that are on social - So I was going to say they were they were down Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and yesterday- there's your five days.
So they should very well come back up tonight before their payments go out for Social Security tomorrow, which is Wednesday, 9/11 - So we have a possibility that we are getting notified and this gets started, if you will, on 9/11 and those of you who have done a lot of research about what happened on 9/11 and know something different than what main stream media put out for about for 23 years, you might know more of what I'm talking about.
That would be that it would be interesting timing to bring it out on that day – that’s as far as I'll take that. And some of you guys that are up to speed know what I'm talking about, and the rest of you don’t know what I'm talking about, that's okay.
So ---- there is very good possibility for this to kick off tomorrow - And then there's a very good possibility that we will get exchanges started, if not tomorrow, then on Thursday
And I think that is pretty much everything that I wanted to say,
tNow, I think you have everything that I wanted to bring out tonight. I've always seen this one or two things later, or the next day that I might have mentioned, but I really think you guys know, when you go in for your appointments, don't get there more than 10 minutes before your appointment - pull in to the parking lot - you know, no more than 10 minutes early - that's early enough, and hopefully everybody's ahead of you is on time has gone through, and you can come in right away. And that's really an important thing, you know, we don’t want to clog it up with tour busses - none of that.
This is by appointment only. And I think you guys know the reason for that, and can appreciate the efficiency of this whole thing going down.
Oh, one error that was put up online that I heard about yesterday. We talked about this months ago, maybe eight or nine months ago now, we did say you would get a Q-phone, which is a satellite phone works on the Starlink Satellite System. You'll get that at the very end of your appointment at the redemption center.
There are none of these at the banks - none. Only for redemption center Zim holders. Zim holders only, okay, so if you're a Zim holder, you'll get a new phone. It's a special phone, and it works everywhere in the world, like a satellite phone does. So this one, essentially, that's what it is working off the StarLink satellite system.
The error was, initially we thought we were going to be getting laptops, and then we thought, Oh, we're going to get a certificate for a free laptop good at about seven retailers. They scrapped/canned ?? that idea and I haven't mentioned that until tonight - I think we're going to have plenty of money to get new computers - Get new laptops. So that's not really an issue. So you're not going to get a free laptop, as certain individuals were saying online.
Beyond that, I would say let's do this. Let's go ahead and thank everybody. Thank you Sue amazing call tonight - Thank you Bob as well. And thank you big call universe for listening all these years - Thank you sat team that gets to call out. We were at 19 million listeners on last Thursdays call maybe as high tonight or not, we'll find out in a day or two when I get the word back to sat team, but just scanning my mind, thinking, if there's anything I've left out that I need to mention ,
I can say one or two more things beyond the thank yous. We have cleanup continuing to go on in Gosh, 118 or 120 cities around the country, they are prepared in case they need to be with National Guard - federalized troops and so on. So there should not be any problems with uprisings or that type of thing after this goes down.
Oh, I know what I was going to say regarding the NESARA and GESARA, the latest information out about an hour before the call was that that would be occurring within a week to a week and a half from now, it was going to be inside of two weeks
And I think the latest information is telling us going to a week to two and a half from tonight we should have, NESARA and GESARA and everything that goes along with that. That would be R and R, Debt forgivenss Debt Jubilee, as we've called it in the past – all of that - Is part of NESARA and internationally it's GESARA Global Economic, Strategic and Recovery Act.
Okay, that affects every other country, but the United States - the US is on NESARA – National Economic Strategic and Recovery Act –
So that is what I wanted to share with you guys - Thank you so much for listening and for being here for the last 13 years. Isn’t it interesting that my call will finish - the big call will finish its 13th year December, 28 and Bob's company will finish its 13th year in November.
It’s lined up pretty well and I think that's cool I think it’s really good - so let's do this - Let's pray the call out, thanks everybody, and let's keep an eye out to see what happens in the next couple of days.
Article: "Iraqi state banks account for 88% of banking sector investments"
Quote: "The Prime Minister's Advisor for Economic Affairs, Mazhar Mohammed Salih, confirmed...government banks account for 88% of the banking system's investments, pointing out the necessity of reforming the banking system on the basis of market work, similar to international banks."
Clare
Article: "Prime Minister's Advisor: Central Bank Decisions Contribute to Reducing Inflation Rates in the Country"
Quote: "The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Mohammed Saleh, explained that the decisions of the Central Bank contribute to reducing inflation rates in the country, and pointed out that economic growth contributes to strengthening the value of the local currency"
Article: "Zaha Hadid Architects Unveils Construction Progress of Central Bank of Iraq Skyscraper in Baghdad"
Quote: "The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) headquarters...is a new landmark on the banks of the Tigris River in Baghdad. Now the tallest building in the city, the 170-meter-tall skyscraper aims to echo the values of the institution: solidity, stability, and sustainability."
When Will the Iraqi Government Resort to Amending the Budget Law? An Economic Expert Explains
As of September 12, 2024, Iraq's reliance on oil revenues continues to dominate its economic landscape [1]. Over the past decade, oil revenues have accounted for more than 99% of exports, 85% of the government's budget, and 42% of gross domestic product (GDP). This heavy dependence on oil exposes the country to macroeconomic volatility, particularly when oil prices fluctuate [1].
In June 2023, the Iraqi Council of Representatives approved the federal budgets for 2023, 2024, and 2025, marking the first time a three-year budget was enacted [2]. The 2023 budget was the largest in Iraq's history, totaling 198.9 trillion Iraqi dinars (approximately $153 billion) [2]. The budgets for 2024 and 2025 are set to remain the same, unless the cabinet requests amendments and Parliament approves them [2].
Iraq's budgeting process has been historically slow, with no budget passed in three of the past nine years (2014, 2020, and 2022) [2]. The three-year budget offers a measure of stability, ensuring that the government has a budget until the next federal elections in late 2025 and provincial council elections scheduled for 2024 [2].
However, the government's reliance on oil revenues, which account for nearly all state revenue, leaves Iraq's economy and budget in a precarious position [3]. Oil is a volatile commodity, and Iraq has limited control over the global oil market. This vulnerability to oil market fluctuations and the decisions of other OPEC members could necessitate budget amendments [3].
Moreover, the complexity of tax legislation, tax evasion, lack of tax awareness, delays in collections, weak supervision and control, and conflicts in tax laws and legislation between different directorates have prompted the Council of Ministers to issue new tax reform instructions starting in 2024 [4]. These reforms aim to address the issues within the tax system that could affect the government's income and budgetary planning [4].
When Will the Budget Law Be Amended?
The decision to amend the budget law will depend on several factors. Chief among them are changes in oil prices, the performance of the non-oil economy, and the government's fiscal needs [1]. If oil prices fall significantly or if non-oil sectors do not perform as expected, the government may need to adjust the budget to ensure fiscal stability [1].
Additionally, the effectiveness of the tax reform instructions and the government's ability to collect revenues could influence the need for budget amendments [4]. If the reforms are successful in increasing tax compliance and collections, the government may have more fiscal space to adjust the budget without compromising its financial stability [4].
Expert Analysis
An economic advisor to the Iraqi government, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, has stated that the three-year budget approach is specifically designed to facilitate long-term planning [5]. The finance and planning ministries can use the Financial Management Law No. 6 of 2019 to make adjustments to the budget over the coming years, as long as Parliament approves them [5].
This flexibility allows the government to account for changes in oil prices or other economic developments, which could lead to amendments in the budget law [5]. The ability to make such adjustments is crucial for maintaining fiscal stability and ensuring that the government can respond to economic fluctuations [5].
Conclusion
The Iraqi government's decision to amend the budget law will be influenced by the evolving economic conditions, including oil prices, tax reforms, and non-oil economic performance. The three-year budget approach offers a level of stability but also the flexibility to make amendments as needed. The government's ability to navigate these challenges will be crucial in maintaining fiscal stability and ensuring the country's economic resilience [3].
I am going to give you a summary...of the other issues that are...on the table. They are on the near horizon and my CBI contact has also told me these are issues that also must be resolved: Passing the Oil and Gas Law referendum, as required by their new 2005 Constitution.; Needed changes to The Investment Law No (13) of 2006 to meet the WTO requirements prior to full accession.; Institute the Pillars of Financial Reform in the Banking, Insurance and the Iraqi Stock Market.
This goes hand in hand with the electronic banking effort...
Iraq is going forward with the Project to Delete the Zeros and actually in the process of doing it not just talking about it again...we must stay grounded as this RV is coming to a closure and there is not much longer to wait.
...recently they have told us this electronic platform is going away at the end of 2024... corruption and money laundering is now all ending and has to end or we will not see any reinstatement. The instrument to do this is the Electronic Banking practices...
Having the US Treasury inside of Iraq now helping with all these banking reforms is a VERY good thing not a negative issue. It is absolutely going to push the RV process for us...We might even say it is the LAST piece to put in place in the RV puzzle to clearly see the end to this RV saga.