Economy News – Baghdad
Five Iraqi banks managed to exceed the trillion dinars barrier with the size of their deposits in 2023, while only two Iraqi banks were able to break the barrier of 2 trillion Iraqi dinars by the size of customer deposits with the two banks.
“The International Development Bank and the National Bank of Iraq were able to break the barrier of 2 trillion dinars with the size of deposits in 2023,” said the economist, Manar Al-Obeidi.
As for the five banks, they are the International Development Bank, the National Bank of Iraq, the Bank of Baghdad, the Iraqi Islamic Bank, the South Islamic Bank, according to the economist.
He added, “The deposits of the five banks grew by 11.3% compared to 2022 and the total deposits of the banks reach 9.25 trillion Iraqi dinars.”
He pointed out that “the South Islamic Bank achieved the highest rate of growth in deposits by more than 147%, then the National Bank of Iraq, whose deposit value grew by 90%.”
Al-Obaidi stressed that “this growth reflects a rise in public confidence in Iraqi private banks and the ability of private banks to acquire part of the cash bloc exported outside the banking system, as it is noted that the volume of deposits for the five banks in 2019 did not exceed the barrier of 1.8 trillion Iraqi dinars to reach more than 9.25 trillion dinars today.”
He continued: “The five Iraqi banks are expected to continue their acquisition of the local market and the ability to attract deposits, whether from outside the banking system or from public sector deposits as a result of the high confidence of these banks and their spread in various governorates, in addition to increasing the great competition between these banks in order to acquire the largest amount of deposits.”
He pointed out that “the increase in the volume of deposits in the private banking sector will contribute to enhancing the wheel of economic growth through the orientation of these banks to invest deposit funds in beneficial economic projects through which they can achieve profits to cover the interest provided on these deposits.”
Al-Obeidi explained that “the total value of deposits in the private and public banking sector amounted to more than 133 trillion dinars at the end of 2023 and these five banks were able to acquire 7% of these deposits and the maximum value of deposits is still with government banks.”
