Al-Humais: The Iraqi Trade Bank is a financial force with its own weight




25/9/2017
Interviewed / Zahraa al-Jassim

With more than three billion dollars in capital and with 430 banks on six continents


The banking sector is one of the most important keys to revitalizing the country's economy, especially when faced with difficult financial conditions and political changes that affect the economic situation, such as Iraq, which relied on a banking system linked to the state's policy to a large extent. After April 9, 2003, there was a tendency to build a new banking system.

Many private and government banks were established, including the Commercial Bank of Iraq (TBI), which is highly dependent on the revitalization of the banking sector and financial exchange inside and outside the country. On the work of this bank and its management and future projects and plans for the development of banking work in the country met "range" Director General of the Bank Faisal Al-Humais .. This is the text of the dialogue with him:


العراق Iraq does not promote only the promotion of small and medium enterprises, what is the role of the bank in this plan and will facilitate lending to the owners of these projects?

The Commercial Bank always thinks about the development of loans. When we set up the new administrative structure of the bank, our business section. We have the sovereign or government finance department and the finance department with the retail and retail finance department, while we have not yet set up a SME financing section. We want to create and allocate our branches as SME finance specialists.

We believe that there is an urgent need for this and our intention is to support young people in working on the development of their communities and their financial support is something we are looking forward to doing because we believe there is a need for renewed ideas from young people Ajhm today to restore the soul to the communities in the areas affected by terrorism.

ما What is the role of the bank in the modernization of the Iraqi banking sector, especially since this sector was cut off from the world and developments over five decades? .. How to modernize and create a thread of trust between the citizen and the bank?

- The banking sector three decades ago was at the top of the pyramid of leadership among the Arab banks in the Middle East, but the problems left by wars and sanctions affected the Iraqi banking sector and its leadership, as it derives its strength from the strength of natural resources in Iraq and the manpower that exists in it, Invests correctly, so the Iraqi Trade Bank has invested in this direction by giving opportunities to youth energies in all its activities, and benefiting from the existing innovations in addition to the activity that exists in the youth is an important extension, and the Commercial Bank gave other opportunities for young people outside the Iraq by looking at the work of other institutions through the network of correspondent banks and benefit from their experiences and this can help us to build new activities of the bank will be attractive to depositors and dealers and create more confidence with them, while maintaining the rigidity in financial management, Most importantly, losing a bank to its reputation means its end.

تخ Failure to deal with banking and distance from mechanization where the banking system is still dependent on old mechanisms, generates slow in the implementation of banking transactions with the citizen, especially in government banks such as Rashid and Rafidain.

- Rasheed Bank and Rafidain with all respect for their long experience linked to the economy of Iraq itself and represent the bulk of the work of the Iraqi government and their presence is necessary and we find that there is a quest to develop the reality of these banks, especially as they are linked to the program of financial reform pledged by Iraq to the International Monetary Fund, Many of these banks have to develop their reality and we find that this is not impossible, and we hope to solve some of the problems and obstacles that they have.

المواطن Iraqi citizen live a culture of keeping cash in his home and no community culture has to deal with the bank, how to attract what is monetized.

- The economic cycle in each country where there is a culture of compactness in homes, and this cycle is not completed only by the deposit of those sums Almkzzah in banks and the latter used in support of the local economy through the re-operation, and the compactness in Iraq at this time was due to failures affected by the citizen Iraqi, at the level of companies and individuals, which led to the fear of banks, but today we with the support of the Central Bank and the implementation of the government's direction began to activate the role of payments electronically salaries to ministries and state departments, and took upon us to introduce new products as a product worthy of which is one of the tools for Premium customer accounts and it contributes to the conversion of savings or compactness from homes to banks.

ما What is the role of the bank in the local economy in the provinces?

- Our main approach is to serve the Iraqi economy both at the national level and at the level of the local economy of the provinces. Finally, the Commercial Bank opened its branch in the province of Ramadi and was the first bank branch to be opened in this city after its liberation from gangs Daash.

Mosul, for the first time, and we are now seeking to open it by the end of this year, as we have contributions and support to the local economies in the Iraqi provinces through the support of basic projects such as electricity, water and other services for the return of displaced persons, and the Commercial Bank will have a role in receiving support from the We have also contributed to many projects for the Ministry of Electricity and other projects. We have also made a big contribution to opening credits for companies, including the company that is working on the rehabilitation of the Mosul Dam, in which we contributed to the reconstruction.

للم The bank has a clear role in the Iraqi financial sector since its inception. Are there future projects that develop the financial process in general and banking in particular?

- The Commercial Bank was established after the change of the former regime in 2003 by a decision of the Coalition Provisional Authority, where the bank was established to enable the government departments and ministries to work to support the state's imports and provide the needs of Iraqi citizens, because of the legal problems of Rafidain Bank, specifically in the former regime, A bank that is composed of the National Bank of Kuwait, the National Bank of Australia and other important banks. Until 2010, this banking alliance did not contribute any capital to the bank, but its presence was necessary to cover the existence of a network of Ben As being a new correspondent banks.

However, after 2010, the bank has had concrete transactions over the past four years. Consequently, the BBA has managed to transform the bank's relations with the banking alliance into direct relationships and has started to build a network of correspondent banks of its own. A bank correspondent on six continents, and we entered the base of the largest 1000 banks within the basic capital standard, with a capital of three billion and one hundred million dollars and ranking 33 of the largest 87 Arab banks according to the same standard.

On the one hand, we are associated with the elected prime minister of Iraq and our reference is the prime minister. Although the head of the commercial bank in his first administration, Hussein al-Azri, although he was accused of corruption but there were success stories, he was able to build the base of the bank and was able to start activities, The second administration, represented by Hamdiya Al Jaf, was also charged with corruption, which is still under investigation in more than one way, but it also managed to increase the bank's capital to $ 1 billion and $ 750.

However, these accusations were subject to corruption, because in fact, This is a failure, because the outside world is afraid to deal with a bank that is accused of corruption, but today the investigations are found in more than one area in the judiciary and integrity. At the request of the parliamentary finance committee and also the commercial bank, it has complaints about dry management.

One of the parties that complained because there are things damaged in the bank, can not be mentioned because they are still under investigation, so we and colleagues today see that the Commercial Bank needs a new offering, and we have changed the brand as the transactions confirm that the bank today is transparent and will build confidence with World External because the only outlet for the state and government departments is the Commercial Bank.

لماذا Why is open account still limited to the dollar and the dinar and does not include the rest of the world currencies?

- The opening of the account on the dollar and the dinar is limited by market transactions and we have no problem opening an account "in progress" in any other currency, whether in the euro or the riyal, but as we said this is determined by the need of the market and the volume of trade with the currency of any country, so the bank also needs to develop To keep pace with the coming era. We are trying to update these points legally, especially since the internal rules of the bank does not prevent our direction to be internally or externally, we have sufficient flexibility to manage the bank's business as needed.

يش Some citizens complain of malfunction or interruption in some of the bank's ATMs or lack of funds in them. Why are there treatments for this?

- The bank has 95 ATMs, but in a country like Iraq, which is home to 36 million people and 18 governorates, are these ATMs sufficient, the answer is certainly not, and not something, so we try to take some notes to improve the performance of ATMs and increase to provide them in larger numbers We need the supplier, NCR, to equip us with 40 other ATMs, which is half of our current system. We know even these machines will not give us that deployment, and we We aspire to expand with 4,000 ATMs, but there are financial limits to religion Among the financial plan of the Bank it can not exceed, on the other hand, when we publish our organs work and feasibility study will be the following best to provide these things.

لماذا Why are the interest on the deposited amounts still low despite the high capital of the bank?

- The interest on deposits is controlled by the liquidity of the bank, and activation will be over the generations is one of the goals we seek, and although the process of increasing interest is a factor of attraction to the customer, but we do not want to affect the profits of the bank, because we seek to maximize our profits because it goes to the Ministry of Finance Which enables the government to implement its projects and thus is considered an alternative source or a certain revenue.

ما What is the usefulness of the dollar dinar replacement form for travelers on the bank's website with the inability of citizens to benefit from it?

- We have heard more than once of this and checked it, but we found that there are replies and received by us to those who were chosen to replace the dinar to the dollar, but also we complain about the lack of some of the benefit of this experience, so the only explanation is the huge number of citizens who want This may be the explanation that some travelers do not have the possibility of replacing the dinar with the dollar.

لديكم You have offers for financial contests Some prepare them not practical What is your opinion and what is the end of it?

- Iraqi banks, whether Commercial Bank or other banks must compete today to attract the customer through offers for multiple products, as it brings benefit to the consumer, whether the client as an individual or a company and we as a bank we want to learn the experience to avoid any inconvenience and we want to simulate the latest developments in this sector, We look at regeneration in everything.


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