The Iraqi Bank for Trade clarifies the procedures of money transfers and combating money laundering
Economy News – Baghdad
The Iraqi Bank for Trade (TBA) announced on Saturday that the percentage of remittances increased to 400 transfers, while clarifying the procedures of money transfers and combating money laundering.
“After the recent decisions taken by the bank’s management as directed by the Prime Minister to open a deposit center, additional branches were opened and working hours were increased from 7 am to 3 pm,” the bank’s media adviser Aqeel Al-Shuwaili said in a televised interview, followed by “Econonomy News”, pointing out that “these decisions contributed significantly to reducing the momentum.”
He added that “the percentage of transfers increased from 250 to more than 400 various transfers daily within the Iraqi Bank for Trade in all branches, which can be increased,” noting that “we have branches that are still under construction that will be opened soon and there are employees with experience, and their number will be increased.”
For her part, the head of the remittances department at the Iraqi Commercial Bank, Ruqa Abdul Rahman, stressed that “the role of the bank is important and effective in determining remittances through the Central Bank’s platform based on the directives of the Prime Minister,” adding that “the bank receives daily requests for the implementation of between 400 to 500 transfers, and remittances that do not meet the conditions are rejected from the documents, because the transfer passes several steps until the final stage of implementation in the remittances section is reached, or the invoice is missing or copies of the identities or documents belonging to the customer himself.”
She continued: “Companies are required to have an account in the Trade Bank (TPE) with the submission of invoices with new dates, the address and information of the person or company to which the transfer is being transferred, benefiting from the final amount, and must be between the transfer applicant and the final beneficiary, in addition to other documents of the identity and papers of the company itself certified and complete.”
She pointed out that “the problem occurs in the case of the merchant wants the transfer quickly, and it is in place with several procedures until it reaches the final stage, and its papers may be incomplete or the branch lifts them and stands at a certain point in the system, and this causes a delay in the transfer, so we emphasize customers to complete the papers of invoices and information before the execution of the transfer, and sometimes the correspondent bank asks for the depositor of the amounts so that there is correspondence between us and him until the conviction is made, and most of the rejecters have a lack of documents and the conditions are not met for the transfer.”
She continued: “When transfers are submitted to the branch, the anti-money laundering department enters and the audit is submitted to the second auditing company, which takes its time, and when it returns to us in it, it is approved, and the audit is carried out again to go to the branch to do the necessary procedure, after which it is submitted to the transfer department and the transfer is carried out between 5 to 7 days,” noting that “the Iraqi Bank for Trade is sober and a wide network of correspondents so that it made customers come to the bank through the Central Bank platform to benefit from the exchange rate approved by the Central Bank and the senior management working on establishing new branches that attract good cadres and increase the percentage of work and remittances.”
In this regard, the head of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Department, Dina Ahmed Farhan, explained that “the most important thing in the transfer is the customer and when he writes a transfer for a certain amount from the application company with the complete papers and the amount, these lists are submitted with the application to the Central Bank platform for approval and attach with it the requirements of the audit company and the requirements of the international company that sends the transfer, in addition to the identities and passports of shareholders, institutions, the negotiating manager and agent.”
She continued: “The account opening form contains family information, name, residence, phone number, monthly forecasts, account transaction amount and private business information to know the customer what he is doing, to know if their names are available to know if they are included in the local and international ban lists and the bank’s list.”
She explained, “There are certain percentages to know if the project can be managed first, audited and reviewed, the primaries to go to the platform, and an agreement comes that turns to Excel, then goes to (K2), an international auditing company in America to check even the beneficiary who is sent company information, papers, email, phone number and address. Sometimes this company cancels many requests because they are unconvincing companies, and they have special sites and metrics that many companies are audited and about 20 companies have been prevented from dealing with them in China, and we have many companies and traders whose papers are seized before they enter the platform."