CBI Governor: Iraqi Banking System Restructuring to be Complete by end of 2014

CBI has received many applications, by many banks, but so far has not been approved, but the licenses of two foreign banks to operate in the country.
The newspaper quoted the “National” American Abdel Basset Turki, Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, saying, “We’re going to give approval of the two banks in the region, but not in GCC and will be scrutinized.”
The speculation in the Iraq conference in Dubai, the financial lenders to two Lebanese banks, some of them already in the Kurdistan region.
And the country is looking to open its doors for foreigners to work by modernizing infrastructure, and increase services and strengthen the banking sector, which includes mostly private banks.
And imposed on the capital increase for the lenders of the private sector in an attempt to improve risk management and enhance corporate governance and shareholders’ equity separate from the bank’s management. The private banks raised the increase to 250 billion Iraqi dinars last June.
Turki said that “five of the lenders are expected to face the problems now, in addition to the Warka Bank, which was considered a dominating by Standard Chartered Bank a few years ago,” noting that “the Bank of Basra was being liquidated.”
Two of the banks, the government suspended their operations since the 2003 war as a result of their inability to repay government debt dating back to the Saddam Hussein regime. It is scheduled to be completed restructuring efforts by the end of this year.
According to Turkish “We moved in late to do the restructuring., And I think we should have been doing it before, but I think that by the end of 2014 will be all about. Has been solving the problems of financial and accounting in a good way, and the only problem remaining is administrative.”
According to Standard Chartered, the percentage of Iraq’s debt to GDP in 2003, about 800 per cent. After many debt relief programs, write off about 80 per cent of the debt in the Paris Club, the debt has declined in the country, so it should be external debt is about 25 per cent of GDP by the end of 2013.
Said Andrew McCartney, a specialist in global banking International Finance Corporation, “The banking sector in Iraq is evolving and diversified its economy away from oil, the main challenge in the banking industry is how to engage in the profitability and sustainability.”