For the first time since June 2023, the Central Bank of Iraq decided to lower the interest rate and reactivate the use of securities in the country’s banks.
The Central Bank of Iraq decided to reactivate the securities (Islamic certificate of deposit and money transfers) in accordance with an annual plan and with two terms, according to a document that was issued on Thursday and addressed to banks operating in Iraq. with a return of 4.5 percent over 182 days and a return of 4% over 14 days, respectively.
The bank’s investment ceiling in a single auction should not exceed (500) billion Iraqi dinars, and the maximum investment ceiling was set at no more than 50% of the total private sector deposits in the bank.
This decision fits into the Central Bank’s plans to end direct bank-to-bank financial transfer monitoring after launching an electronic platform in early 2023 with the goal of improving proactive financial transfer monitoring.
An informed bank source says that in a previous press release, only six banks were allowed to do dollar transfers. Thirteen banks will trade in other currencies, and international auditing firms are still looking at the banks that are under US Federal Reserve sanctions.
