Banking expert: Private banks do not support the Iraqi economy and depend on the Central Bank
Banking expert Mohammed Salem confirmed on Monday that most private banks are still “living” on the Central Bank of Iraq without engaging in any economic activity.
Salem told Shafaq News Agency, “Most private banks do not practice banking work in terms of credit except in a simple way, and therefore they do not contribute to stimulating the Iraqi economy, as currency exchange is the basis of their banking revenues, so they have come to depend on electronic trading, hard currency and electronic payment, as they obtain dollars from the Central Bank and sell them and obtain net profits without fatigue.”
He added, “Despite their distancing from providing bank loans, private banks were pioneers in electronic trading and in providing services to citizens and employees, whether related to automated teller machines or other electronic services, at a time when government banks were suffering from backwardness in this area.”
He explained that “these services provided by private banks encouraged employees to localize their salaries with them, while government banks, with the exception of the Trade Bank of Iraq, continued to suffer from the problem of the lack of localization of employees’ salaries.”
Salem stressed that “government banks, despite their failure to keep up with international and even private banks, remain faithful in preserving the money of their depositors, no matter how much they are exposed to theft and looting, which is what these banks witnessed in 2003.”
shafaq.com