Baghdad – conscious
The Iraqi Private Banks Association announced today, Sunday, the establishment of more than 1.2 million bank accounts within 9 months.
The Executive Director of the Iraqi Private Banks Association, Ali Tariq, said in a statement received by the (INA): “The Iraqi banking sector is witnessing significant growth, thanks to the support from the government and the Central Bank of Iraq,” noting that “banks and electronic payment companies have infrastructures.” Good infrastructure, with a significant expansion of its services, which increased confidence between the banking sector and citizens.”
He pointed out that “bank accounts grew by 14 percent, reaching as of September 30, 2023, 10.02 million bank accounts, after at the end of 2022 there were more than 8.79 million accounts, which means the creation of more than 1.2 million accounts within 9 months,” indicating “Current accounts grew by 17.7 percent and reached 3.54 million accounts, savings accounts grew by 11 percent to reach 5.55 million accounts, while fixed deposit accounts grew by 4.6 percent to reach 236.8 thousand accounts, and corporate accounts increased by 5 percent to reach 688.7 thousand accounts.” .
He stressed that “the number of bank cards increased by 14.2 percent, as banks and electronic payment companies issued 2.3 million new cards during the past 9 months, bringing the total number of cards to 18.5 million cards,” pointing out that “point-of-sale devices grew by 117 percent during this period.” It reached 23,261 devices, while at the end of last year it was 10,718 devices.”
Tariq noted that “ATMs grew by 30.5 percent and reached 2,901 after there were 2,223 machines at the end of last year.”
The Executive Director pointed out that “the transformations witnessed by the financial sector in Iraq are important in achieving economic reform, and this is due to the support from the government and the Central Bank, and the change in the process of external transfer to finance trade, has made the bank accounts of companies rise significantly.”