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KTFA
The head of the parliamentary Design Alliance bloc and leader of the Coordination Framework, Amer Al-Fayez, told Al-Furat News Agency: “There is a governmental determination to complete the government formation and select ministers for the vacant ministries in the coming days; however, the names of the candidates have not yet arrived.”
He added that “the House of Representatives will enter a one-month legislative recess on June 1st, which is tomorrow, Monday.”
The winner pointed out that “if the names are complete, the Speaker of the House of Representatives can call for an extraordinary session to be held if the legal quorum is met, in order to vote on the candidates, while the decision will be postponed until after the end of the legislative holiday if the quorum is not met.”
Raghid (LINK)
”The gap is widening”… Why do Iraqis prefer money exchange over banks?
5/31/2026
Money exchange and transfer offices in Iraq have witnessed a remarkable expansion in recent years, as a wide segment of citizens and merchants continue to rely on them to carry out their daily financial transactions, in contrast to a relative decline in reliance on government banks for a number of financial services.
According to experts, this expansion reflects a continuing gap between the citizen and the official banking system, related to the speed of completing transactions and ease of access to services, compared to traditional banking procedures that are still characterized by bureaucracy, overcrowding and a long completion time in some cases.
Reliance on criticism continues
In this context, the Prime Minister’s financial advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, said that “about 87% of the Iraqi money supply, equivalent to about 95 trillion dinars out of 109 trillion dinars, is still outside the banking system, which limits the banking sector’s ability to employ funds in credit and investment, and reflects the continued phenomenon of cash hoarding and the weak integration of funds into the official banking cycle.”
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Despite improvements in financial inclusion indicators in Iraq, a large segment of citizens remains outside the banking system or does not rely on it regularly in their daily transactions.
The Central Bank of Iraq had announced that the rate of financial inclusion would rise to more than 40% during 2025, after it had been around 20% in previous years. This is an indicator that includes bank accounts, electronic wallets and digital payment tools, and not just traditional bank accounts.
However, economic estimates indicate that a large proportion of adults do not have active bank accounts or do not use them regularly, reflecting the continued widespread reliance on cash in the local market.
The country also relies heavily on imports to meet the market’s needs for goods, at a time when the complexities associated with customs clearance procedures, as well as the inability of some traders to obtain dollars through the central bank’s window, are pushing them to rely on exchange offices to secure foreign currency and make external transfers.
The currency market: between need and speculation
According to experts, this reality contributes to an increased demand for dollars in the local market, especially from small and medium-sized traders who face difficulties in accessing official channels for financial transfers.
Meanwhile, regulatory estimates suggest there are thousands of exchange offices and companies throughout the country, compared to about 900 branches of government and private banks, reflecting the expansion of the non-banking network compared to the official banking structure.
The banking sector plays an important role in facilitating the movement of liquidity within the market, but the gap between the official dollar exchange rate and the parallel market rate, which ranges between 15% and 20% during periods of crisis, has contributed to stimulating transactions outside banking channels and increasing currency speculation activity.
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It is also estimated that this sector provides more than 50,000 direct and indirect job opportunities in the areas of remittances and liquidity management.
Economic Vision
For his part, economist Dirgham Muhammad Ali told Shafaq News Agency that “some money exchange companies have begun to engage in activities similar to those of banks by granting loans and credits secured by salaries, in practices he described as being outside the legal framework of the powers granted to them.”
He pointed out that “this activity is linked to the limited role of some banks in providing credit to economic sectors,” explaining that “these operations are considered high-risk in light of high interest rates and the absence of regulatory oversight of loan granting mechanisms and installment collection, which may lead to increased financial burdens on borrowers.”
Ali continued, saying that “lending activity is not within the nature of the work of exchange companies or the licenses granted to them, which are limited to banking and foreign transfer operations, which makes these practices outside the scope of legally licensed activity.”
For his part, financial expert Hilal Al-Taan, speaking to Shafaq News Agency, said that “a wide segment of citizens in Iraq prefer to deal with exchange offices because of the speed of completing transactions and the ease of procedures compared to government banks, in addition to the flexibility of working hours, which in some cases extend to late hours and holidays.”
He explained that “weak confidence in the banking sector, along with the widespread reliance on cash in the Iraqi economy, contributed to strengthening this trend,” noting that “exchange offices contribute to facilitating internal and external transfers and providing dollars for trade and imports.”
Regarding the exchange market, Al-Taan pointed out that “exchange offices indirectly affect the price of the dollar through supply and demand mechanisms, as the high demand for foreign currency, along with speculation and the difference between the official price and the market price, contribute to fluctuations in the exchange rate, in addition to psychological factors that drive some citizens to buy dollars when they expect its prices to rise.”
Domestically, this situation limits the effectiveness of the central bank’s monetary policy tools in controlling the market and stabilizing the exchange rate, which indirectly affects price levels and investment activities, especially in light of economic fluctuations and market instability.
According to experts, the numerical expansion of exchange offices does not necessarily represent an indicator of economic health, but rather reflects the continued gap between the citizen and the banking institution.
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Source: Dinar Recaps
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