KTFA
FRANK26: "MONETARY REFORM FOCUSES ON THE BANKING SECTORS OF IRAQ"
Focus on the banking sector
11/26/2024
Yasser Al-Mutawali
It is noted these days that there is a growing interest in the banking sector in general, both governmental and private sectors.
What does this trend mean?
This comes amidst a noticeable shift in attention towards the banking sector through the government’s allocation of significant time in light of its enormous responsibilities, which means its awareness that all economic activities, including the implementation of strategic projects and means of encouraging investment, require a solid banking sector to implement its economic programs.
This moral support, which is represented by interest, requires taking encouraging steps for banks to perform their role to the fullest extent, represented by laws and procedures that guarantee the banking sector and push it towards implementing its required development programs.
The month of October of this year witnessed many important meetings between the government and representatives of the banking sector, which discussed the requirements for activating banks.
It is noteworthy that the focus was on the process of restructuring Rafidain Bank, which is the first bank in Iraq that the government relies on to play a developmental role that matches the size of its savings, especially since it is the container that preserves government savings as well as the savings of the public, which are no less important. The goal is certainly to invest this money and put it into the labor market in a way that achieves rapid capital turnover that contributes to creating wide job opportunities by operating idle production sectors, workshops, factories, etc. However, this interest was not limited to government banks, but rather extended to the same interest in private banks through meetings and discussions of their needs, whether by the government or the Central Bank of Iraq, and attempts to overcome the challenges they face.
The results of this government movement represented by the interest in the government sector and in parallel with that, the completion of the final touches to the lending strategy and its launch, which comes to correct the course of random, non-targeted loans. This new strategy is relied upon to activate various important economic sectors represented by directing loans towards implementing projects with a strategic dimension that contribute to stimulating the economy and help in diversifying sources of income as a final product for banks and correcting the structural distortion in the economy and its transition from a rentier economy to a diversified economy. This is the summary of the objectives behind the increasing government interest in the banking sector, and from here came the realization of the importance of the banking sector in achieving sustainable development. In addition to that, the launch of the activity of Riyada Bank to support small projects within the objectives of providing job opportunities for unemployed youth, as well as providing some market requirements for goods, commodities and products that reduce the import process that absorbs foreign currency. There is no doubt that launching the trading of the issuance of government bonds (Injaz) involves achieving the same reform and development goals and falls within the government's interest in the banking sector, which will contribute to promoting, selling and trading them.
