Guest views are now limited to 12 pages. If you get an "Error" message, just sign in! If you need to create an account, click here.

Jump to content

  • CRYPTO REWARDS!

    Full endorsement on this opportunity - but it's limited, so get in while you can!

Iraq's Inevitable Oil Boom Inevitably Attracting Global Banks

yota691

By yota691,
in Iraq & Dinar Related News

 Share

Recommended Posts

yota691 Grand Master

yota691

Posted
Posted

 

 

20132406132720.jpg
BAGHDAD (AP) — Citigroup Inc. is set to become the first American bank to open an office of its own in Baghdad, highlighting financial firms' growing interest in Iraq a decade after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.

 

Executives say the representative office Citi has received preliminary approval for will help support its corporate customers in Iraq and act as a liaison for companies looking to do business there.

British bank Standard Chartered is also making a push in Iraq with plans to open branches in three cities.

"Essentially what we are doing is following our clients," said Mayank Malik, Citi's chief executive for Jordan and Iraq, ahead of an official announcement Monday. "We see this as a giant waking up . . . The time to enter is now. It's not when everything has been done."

Iraq has struggled to attract interest from Western companies outside of the oil sector in the 10 years since U.S.-led forces toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Security and political instability remain major concerns, and corruption within the top-heavy statist economy is deeply entrenched.

Even so, foreign banks see opportunities as Iraq's economy opens up on the back of an oil boom.

The World Bank expects Iraq's economy to grow by 9 percent this year, compared with just over 2 percent for the global economy as a whole. Last year Iraq became the second-largest oil producer in OPEC, and now churns out more than 3 million barrels of crude a day.

Iraq's financial system is dominated by state-owned banks, though lenders from nearby countries including Iran and Lebanon have opened branches since the war. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, one of the largest banks in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, opened its first outpost in Baghdad last year.

Iraq is slowly showing signs of economic development, with new hotels, restaurants and car dealerships popping up. But it remains a challenging place to do business.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in bombings and other violent attacks since the start of April in the worst outburst of violence in five years. And the country is politically volatile. Iraq's long-serving central bank governor was abruptly removed from his post in October following a probe into alleged financial wrongdoing.

Citi's Iraq country head, Dennis Flannery, who was previously the U.S. Treasury Department's representative at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, described Iraq's unpredictability and instability as "part of the landscape" of the country.

"The economic engine is still humming along. We haven't seen any reason to alter our strategy," he said.

At a cafe inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, Citi's Malik and Flannery described the new office as the start of a broader relationship with Iraq that could lead to bank branches down the road. The office itself will start out small and will be located outside the confines of the Green Zone, a sprawling complex of government buildings and embassies sealed off from the rest of the city by blast walls and heavily armed soldiers backed by tanks.

"There'll be next steps," Flannery said. "It's important to collect information, to learn better what the market is all about, to learn the good parts, the bad parts, everything . . . And that will enable us to take that next step to full-scale banking in a better informed way."

The bank says the Baghdad outpost may be followed by additional representative offices in the southern oil hub of Basra and the Kurdish regional capital Irbil in the north of the country.

Citi already counts as clients many of the large international oil companies that have been brought in to develop Iraq's vast oil reserves, he said.

The bank is also advising Kuwaiti telecommunications provider Zain as it gets ready to list shares of its Iraqi operations on the Iraq Stock Exchange. Another Iraqi telecom, Asiacell, raised nearly $1.3 billion when it floated shares on the small stock exchange in February. It was one of the Middle East's biggest stock offerings in years.

Britain's Standard Chartered, meanwhile, is working on plans to open bank branches in Baghdad, Basra and Irbil. Its reasons are similar to Citi's.

"We need to be on the ground to support our global network clients in industries such as power, oil, telecoms and construction," spokesman Piers Townsend said.

Saleh Mahoud Salman, the director of administration at the Central Bank of Iraq, was unable to say when the companies' operating licenses would be issued. He welcomed the banks' interest in Iraq, saying they could help "develop the economy and push the banking sector forward."

Even as Citi and Standard Chartered push into Iraq under their own brands, British banking giant HSBC is considering an exit of its 70 percent stake in Iraq's Dar es Salaam Investment Bank as part of a wider review of its global operations.

 

  • Upvote 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites
SgtFuryUSCZ Apprentice

SgtFuryUSCZ

Posted
Posted

***///

 

All well and good for you, Iraq...

 

But you are incapable of a guarantee of safety for global entities within the confines of

your borders.

 

Uncle Sam no-can-do no more..... :confused2:

 

Sovereignty means you'd better be able to back it up....

 

and we don't see that you can.

 

Ya'll will be opening the door to the boasts of IRAN as your protectors soon enough. <_<

 

mark our words.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
yota691 Grand Master

yota691

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Citigroup plans to open a branch in Iraq

   

  Citigroup will open branches in Baghdad and also in Erbil and Basra(European)

Executives said Citigroup bank of America said yesterday that the group plans to open a branch in Iraq , pointing to the growing interests in this country during the ten years that followed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.pointed officials that they have received the approval of an initial Iraqi Central Bank to open Office for Citigroup in Baghdad , which will help the customer service group in Iraq, and support for companies seeking to invest in the country. quoted by Bloomberg News economic James Kols CEO of Citigroup Europe, Middle East and Africa, as saying that "Iraq is an important market, where he owns economy, large capacity, "he said, adding that the presence of the group - the largest in the United States - will have a better place to provide services and meet the needs of customers.


 

"
Citigroup has been serving clients in Iraq from the Jordanian capital Amman branch 
"

Citigroup and serve its customers through its branch in Amman, Jordan, and will join the 15 international banks operate in Iraq, according to the Iraqi Central site, and you want the U.S. banking group also opened two branches in the cities of Erbil north of the country and Basra in the south.

The banking sector
is dominated by the banking sector, the Iraqi-owned banks to the government, but the banks GCC neighbors such as Iran and Lebanon opened branches in the country since the end of the war, also opened Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's first branch in Baghdad last year. trying to Iraqi authorities to attract foreign companies to work outside the oil sector However, insecurity and political instability remain the biggest challenges, as well as the problem of corruption devices state, is that foreign banks see opportunities must seize the Iraqi economy, and who knew the tremendous growth the recent period driven boom oil production. The World Bank estimates that the economy of Iraq has made last year's growth of about 9%, and last year became the country's second-largest oil producer of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC ), as production exceeded three million barrels of oil a day.

Edited by yota691
  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
waterman13 Newbie

waterman13

Posted
Posted (edited)

To me, this is a clear statement to the rest of the world:

"The World Bank expects Iraq's economy to grow by 9 percent this year, compared with just over 2 percent for the global economy as a whole."

 
In other words: Iraq's economy is growing over four times the rate of the rest of the world in these troubled economic times. :eyebrows::D
GO IRAQ GO!
WM13
Edited by waterman13
  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
zigmeister Newbie

zigmeister

Posted
Posted

***///

 

All well and good for you, Iraq...

 

But you are incapable of a guarantee of safety for global entities within the confines of

your borders.

 

Uncle Sam no-can-do no more..... :confused2:

 

Sovereignty means you'd better be able to back it up....

 

and we don't see that you can.

 

Ya'll will be opening the door to the boasts of IRAN as your protectors soon enough. <_<

 

mark our words.

Now do you really think if Iraq is so dangerous these banks would be beginning the process to open branches there?  Read what it said, they are following their customers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SgtFuryUSCZ Apprentice

SgtFuryUSCZ

Posted
Posted

Now do you really think if Iraq is so dangerous these banks would be beginning the process to open branches there?  Read what it said, they are following their customers.

 

***///

 

 

Sorry ZIGs, but lamentably - we do....  :o  

 

the underlying internal regional differences and conflict, the random bombings and slaughter,

the criss-crossing of their borders by every dark shade of terrorist,

the theft & corruption (even though they've tried to put in place stop-gaps for this),

 

we fear that without a strong unified National peace-keeping force in place,

it is just too tenuous -- even now. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites
uncirculd Newbie

uncirculd

Posted
Posted

***///

 

All well and good for you, Iraq...

 

But you are incapable of a guarantee of safety for global entities within the confines of

your borders.

 

Uncle Sam no-can-do no more..... :confused2:

 

Sovereignty means you'd better be able to back it up....

 

and we don't see that you can.

 

Ya'll will be opening the door to the boasts of IRAN as your protectors soon enough. <_<

 

mark our words.

Got that right SgtFury!   Citi will have to hire "US contractors" to protect their interest.    They want to stand on their own 2 feet, so DO IT IRAQ!  If you want to hang with the big boys, you gotta grow up and be one.

***///

 

 

Sorry ZIGs, but lamentably - we do....  :o  

 

the underlying internal regional differences and conflict, the random bombings and slaughter,

the criss-crossing of their borders by every dark shade of terrorist,

the theft & corruption (even though they've tried to put in place stop-gaps for this),

 

we fear that without a strong unified National peace-keeping force in place,

it is just too tenuous -- even now. :(

Not to mention, the bankers don't care about employees, just the deposits.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
zigmeister Newbie

zigmeister

Posted
Posted

***///

 

 

Sorry ZIGs, but lamentably - we do....  :o  

 

the underlying internal regional differences and conflict, the random bombings and slaughter,

the criss-crossing of their borders by every dark shade of terrorist,

the theft & corruption (even though they've tried to put in place stop-gaps for this),

 

we fear that without a strong unified National peace-keeping force in place,

it is just too tenuous -- even now. :(

I disagree.  One more time but I will extend it a bit more, do you honestly believe Iraq would be released from chapter 7 if it was so volatile?  I don't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.


  • Testing the Rocker Badge!

    Take This Quiz

  • Live Exchange Rate

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.

  I accept