🇮🇶💻💰 IRAQ’S DIGITAL DINAR: ANOTHER PIECE OF THE FINANCIAL REFORM PUZZLE
📰 Prime Minister’s Advisor Mazhar Muhammad Salih called the digital dinar a promising strategic project that could improve monetary policy, liquidity management and government payments.
💡 Most importantly, he clarified that the digital dinar would NOT be a new currency.
🪙 It would be a digital form of the existing Iraqi dinar, with the same legal value as the physical dinar.
🏦 The goals include:
🔹 Reducing reliance on cash
🔹 Lowering currency handling and printing costs
🔹 Expanding electronic payments
🔹 Reducing the unregulated cash economy
🔹 Fighting tax evasion, money laundering and corruption
🔹 Improving financial inclusion
🔹 Modernizing Iraq’s banking system
🚀 Salih also confirmed that the CBI has already advanced electronic payment systems, digital wallets, POS devices and modern bank settlement systems.
🧠 My reading: When this is combined with the recent discussion about removing zeros and bringing large amounts of cash back into the banking system, the bigger picture becomes even more interesting.
🇮🇶 Iraq appears to be building the infrastructure for a more modern, transparent and increasingly digital monetary system.
⚠️ This does NOT confirm a revaluation or a new exchange rate. The digital dinar would initially maintain the same value as the physical dinar.
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📌 BLUESKY: https://bsky.app/profile/dinaresgurus.bsky.social
#Iraq #IraqiDinar #IQD #DigitalDinar #CBI #CurrencyReform #BankingReform #FinancialReform #DigitalCurrency #MonetaryPolicy #IraqEconomy
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PRIME MINISTER’S ADVISOR: DIGITAL DINAR A PROMISING PROJECT TO ENHANCE THE EFFICIENCY OF MONETARY POLICY
The Prime Minister’s advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, confirmed on Monday that the digital dinar is a promising strategic project and not an independent solution to the liquidity crisis. While he pointed out that paying salaries digitally enhances the speed of payments and reduces cash transactions, he indicated that the success of the digital dinar depends on expanding banking services and infrastructure.
Saleh told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The proposal to launch the digital Iraqi dinar is one of the ideas that deserves to be studied within the framework of Iraq’s move towards digital transformation and the development of the financial system.
If the digital dinar is meant to be a digital currency issued by the Central Bank of Iraq and enjoys the same legal force as the paper dinar, then it could represent a modern tool to enhance the efficiency of monetary policy, improve liquidity management, and develop the government payments system, which is what most central banks in the world are working on today.”
He added that “a sovereign digital currency does not mean creating a new currency, but rather issuing a digital form of the Iraqi dinar, so that it becomes available for electronic trading through digital wallets and bank accounts, while its value remains equal to the paper dinar,” explaining that “the importance of the digital currency lies in reducing reliance on cash, lowering printing, transportation and protection costs, speeding up payment processes, enhancing financial inclusion, as well as reducing the unregulated cash economy and its associated tax evasion, money laundering and corruption.”
Saleh pointed out that “the digital dinar should not be blamed for addressing the cash liquidity crisis, as the crisis, if it exists, is primarily linked to structural economic and financial factors, including the structure of the general budget, the level of government spending, citizens’ confidence in the banking sector, the size of deposits, and monetary policy,” stressing that “the digital dinar is a means to improve the efficiency of cash management, and not an independent cure for macroeconomic imbalances.”
He continued:
“The Central Bank of Iraq has made significant progress in the digital transformation process by expanding electronic payment systems, digital wallets, point-of-sale devices, and linking banks to modern settlement systems.” He pointed out that “these measures represent the foundation upon which future decisions can be made to issue a sovereign digital currency, but this requires completing the legal and legislative frameworks, strengthening cybersecurity, and providing a technological infrastructure capable of accommodating this transformation.”
He explained that “disbursing salaries to employees and retirees in digital form is technically possible, especially since a large segment of salaries are currently disbursed via bank cards linked to the localization of government salaries and pensions,” noting that “in the future, the possibility of depositing salaries directly into digital wallets or accounts linked to the digital dinar can be studied, which reduces the need for cash transactions, enhances the speed of payment execution, and limits the risks of transferring and handling money in cash.”
Saleh explained that “the success of this transformation depends on several requirements,
1.most notably expanding the spread of banking services in all governorates,
2.increasing the number of electronic payment devices and ATMs,
3.improving the quality of communications and internet services, and
4.raising the level of digital financial literacy among citizens, in order to ensure that society accepts these modern methods and uses them with confidence and security.”
The Prime Minister’s advisor pointed out that “the launch of the digital Iraqi dinar represents a promising strategic project, but it is not a substitute for economic and financial reforms, rather it is part of them. Its success requires a more diversified economy, a more efficient banking sector, and disciplined financial policies, in addition to an integrated legal and technical framework. When these elements are available, the digital dinar can contribute to enhancing financial stability, improving liquidity management, and supporting the transition towards a more efficient and transparent digital economy, in line with modern global trends in managing monetary systems.”