AL-SUDANI: RESTRICTIONS ARE USEFUL, AND I ASKED THE AMERICANS ABOUT THEIR SILENCE ON THE DOLLAR CHAOS BEFORE ME!
Answered about selling 300 million daily
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani asserted that US sanctions were the best way to eliminate “rogue shops” and that the punitive measures imposed on Iraqi banks were a result of the previous government’s failure to fulfill its commitments to the US.
He also said that the Treasury described the progress in reforming the banking system as “the revolution we dreamed of.” During a lengthy interview, al-Sudani justified the increase in the Central Bank’s dollar sales by the acceleration of construction activity and the import of building materials. He also promised to launch a reform plan to correct the banking sector, which is “the most important in Iraq’s history.”
Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, during an interview with journalist Samer Jawad:
There is an exaggeration of the problems facing Iraq, even though countries face many similar challenges, even on the security level. During the ISIS crisis, they said that Iraq was finished, and on the economic level, they said that the economy was finished, but things later proceeded normally.
After assuming the premiership, I faced the issue of the agreements between the previous government, the Treasury, and the US Federal Reserve, which were two years old at the time, regarding a roadmap for Iraq to enter the global financial compliance circle. However, the previous government did not implement any of them, and the deadline expired at the beginning of my government.
My government was able to transform the challenge and commitment to the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve into an opportunity to reform the Iraqi financial and banking system. This came at a social and political cost, which our opponents exploited. However, we leveraged the issue to end the anomalous situation of dollar-selling shops, which we all complained about, and we were able to implement the imposed obligations.
The sanctioned banks were sanctioned for violations committed during the previous government’s term. The sanctions imposed by international institutions were related to that period, but there are no violations in this regard now.
We have been able to implement the standards, and now the Iraqi banking system operates transparently, in accordance with international compliance standards and certified by international institutions. During my last visit to New York, the US Treasury representative informed us that Iraq has achieved a revolution we had dreamed of in previous periods. International compliance standards have been applied to all Iraqi financial transfers, via correspondent banks and the US audit firm. Not a single dollar is spent without passing through these bodies.
The only cash dollars exchanged are for travelers, and are spent at the plane door. Therefore, not a single dollar is exchanged outside of improper transactions and procedures. The Central Bank’s increased dollar sales have a different interpretation related to construction and development in the country, unlike what used to happen in the days when the process was conducted through receipts and chaos. Thirty percent of the value of our annual imports goes to construction materials, and this reflects the scale of construction and development.
The Iraqi banking system has reached such a level of reliability that international banks have begun opening credit lines here. We have contracted with Oliver Wyman to reform the private banking system, and we will launch the reform plan after Eid. It will be the most important plan since the founding of the Iraqi state. The government banking sector will be reformed under the supervision of Ernst & Young.
