Prime Minister Muhammad Shay al Sadani went to New York on Saturday, so he looks like he arrived. Of course, he’s had a subsequent speech today, just as you know. But ultimately he’s gonna have a couple of speeches. I think the first one you noticed probably in, in the news today, and that was with the future summit meeting of the UNGA, the UN General Assembly.
I think it’s the 79th session in New York City. So there was going to be, obviously a lot of presidents will participate. What are they going to be talking about? Is strengthening cooperation, facing challenges and affirming commitments.
So that’s basically what it sounds like. Sounds like Sudani is going to have a busy agenda. There’s going to be sideline meetings that will probably be ongoing, but I’m not sure exactly how those things pay out.
So we’ll just watch the next couple of days for what we can glean from the summit or the assembly meeting, and we’ll just go from there. The advisor to al Sudani, stated that the banking system in Iraq is rentier par excellence regardless of ownership, noting that it retails on oil resources and government liquidity directly and indirectly. He stresses that needs of comprehensive reform process to create these market institutions. So obviously, what are they going to do? They’re going to create an environment to go to a market economy.
And I think they’re probably going to have Ernst and young. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re talking largely in the next few days about the privatisation of the two largest state banks, but they haven’t done that yet. But they’ve implied they’ve got some things going on. basically what’s happening is going to enable the banking market to be integrated with the international financial and banking system and become attractive to large scale global banks.
The prime minister, Shia al Sadani, announced last Thursday a former formation of a higher committee to deal with the work of iraqi banks in accordance with international and financial requirements, while he was also directing private banks to build balanced relations with financial institutions, arab banks and investors. So obviously there’s a relationship with these two largest banks of going into a market economy.
Al Sudani was in this assembly last year and it was in September, and he was talking about being effectively the saviour of the international financial system. And they were subsequently in Davos a few months later. They were talking about restoring confidence to the international financial system. The whole Davos meetings were on restoring confidence and Iraq was a big part of that.
Well he has done a lot of achievements.
But it’s fascinating that you see the likes of the central bank governor Alak, as Sudani is in New York, he starts talking and it says here that Alak is stating that we are constantly reviewing the deletion of the zeros from the dinar and there are no restrictions on our balances in America. So obviously it says that the central bank of Iraq has reduced reliance on the US Dollar in commercial transactions, according to the governor of the central bank Ali Alak, Ali Alak adding that the project to remove the zeros in Iraq is under continuous review and study at the bank.
It says the Central bank of Iraq has created new mechanisms to cover the accounts of local banks with their senders in other currencies such as the chinese yuan, the Indian rupee the euro, the UAE, Durham. In addition to the United States dollar, which has reduced reliance on the us currency in commercial transactions for the clients of these banks.
As the central bank seeks to withdraw excess liquidity in the economy, that puts pressure on the exchange rate and to prevent the exported currency from growing in undesirable manners. So it’s fascinating to see that he’s back beating the drum about the deletion of the zeroes. It says, what are they going to do? They reduce exposure to external crisis by maintaining liquidity in foreign currency to absorb shocks in times of crisis.
If you remember, a while back, significant commentary was coming from the World bank about be prepared for shocks, because what’s going to be shocking for some people is to realise that the central bank digital currencies is definitely in the air and it’s probably not going away. Central bank of Iraq has a level of reserves that enables it to achieve this stability and provides with sufficient flexibility to meet the demand for foreign currencies to meet the requirements of the balance of payments and other obligations.
They’re talking about imports, etc covering that amount of money. They’re talking about the on the level of foreign reserves adequacy. How much do they have? The foreign reserves of the central bank cover about 83.62% of the broad money supply.
It says that is covering the cost of importing 15 months worth of goods, while global standards only 20%, effectively six months. So they’re pushing double, almost triple of what is normal. They have gold reserves, etc.
They have the non oil revenues they’re working on in Kurdistan region & They were having meetings in Kurdistan about maximising non oil revenues.
The central bank responded to the global economic challenges, such as rising energy and raw material prices, by adjusting some monetary policies in line with international situations to enhance confidence in the iraqi dinar. Again, they’re still talking about enhanced confidence in iraqi dinar and prevent a sharp decline in its value.
The central bank raised interest rates to counter inflationary pressures resulting from challenges in global prices and domestic demand, and issued new instructions to iraqi banks to control cash liquidity. The central bank of Iraq has increased its holdings of foreign exchange reserves and gold to strengthen the country’s financial position and financial stability. He goes on to say that this is enhancing the spread of digital banks and online financial services. These activities According to applicable procedures in all currencies except the dollar. But he says there’s no restrictions on our US accounts taking into account the application of international standards to combat money laundering, terrorist financing in foreign transfers. And they’re also looking to address these challenges that we are working to improve and expand our digital infrastructure.
In this context, the Central bank of Iraq has initiated the establishment of international electronic payment company to encourage the banking and non banking sectors and public institutions to develop their infrastructure. So basically The central bank of Iraq is putting out licence controls for digital banks in Iraq. And they started that in May of this year.
And they’re obviously working towards that end to get everybody up to speed with digital banks. And that it’s going to take out some risks and it should be good for combating cybersecurity and things of that nature. So they’re talking about that they agree with the International Monetary Fund regarding reforming the public finance situation, their policies in achieving its primary goal. The stability of the general price level through controlling liquidity levels.
So the central bank is working with the IMF. Question was asked, will removing zeros from the dinar destabilise the financial situation in Iraq? The process of removing the zeros from a currency means replacing the old currency with a new one. In order to simplify the accounting process between consumers, it is often resorted to by countries that suffer from high inflation and have become unable to deal with paper currencies of very low value.
The project to remove the zeroes in Iraq is under continuous review and study at the Central bank of Iraq, taking into consideration the existence of a volume of issued currency that exceeded 100 trillion dinars after.
At one time in 2004, it was 6 trillion this year, following the exchange of the currency that was undesirable and of poor quality. So they’re talking about back in 2004 that they’ve obviously made changes and they’re just a reflection of how the process works. And there’s directing financial resources towards infrastructure and economic development projects and improving the ability to finance development projects. And it also would be helpful for reducing pressure on foreign reserves, which has a positive impact on the stability of the currency and the country’s ability to cover its imports and maintain financial economic stability.
No restrictions on our balances in America reiterates it. Number of bank cards has increased to about almost 20 million cards, Alak said, adding the project to delete the zeros in Iraq, subject to continuous review and study at the bank. The central bank responded to global economic challenges such as rising energy, raw material prices, amending some monetary policies in line with an international situation to enhance confidence in the dinar and prevent sharp decline in its value.
It says the central bank increased it’s holding in the foreign reserves and gold. Regarding the crisis of rising exchange rates, he explained that the Central bank of Iraq has established new mechanisms to cover the accounts of local banks with their senders in other currencies such as the chinese yuan, the indian rupee, the euro, e Durham, in addition to the dollar, which has again reduced reliance on the us currency and commercial transactions for customers of these banks. And basically the central bank seeks to withdraw excess liquidity in the economy.
Digital banks follow the logic, get rid of the cash economy that puts pressure on the exchange rate and prevent exported currency from growing undesirably.
it’s basically talking about central bank is working in cooperation with public and private institutions to organise awareness campaigns aimed at increasing public knowledge of the benefits of using bank cards and electronic payment systems or methods to enhance confidence again in the banking system. He says that there’s a number of bank cards increased in 2023 to 19.75 million cards and the number of bank accounts increased to 13.3 million accounts. He stresses that the bank is working to encourage financial innovation by supporting the development of services such as electronic wallets.
That sounds like central bank digital currency is coming or tokenized currency or tokenized monies. Banking applications and opening digital banks and is currently working to launch a national financial inclusion strategy that includes solutions to most of these challenges, in addition to financial awareness programmes targeting various segments of iraqi society. They reiterated again regarding the process of delete the zeros from the currency.
He stressed that the process of deleting the zeroes from the currency means replacing a new currency with old currency to simplify the accounting process. So instead of having bags and bags of notes, you’re going to have smaller amounts. Basically, he’s indicating that the project of deleting the zeros in Iraq subject to continuous review, taking into account existence of issued currency volume. it basically is stating the book accounts process the government still suffer from due to the circumstance the country went through.
The zeros will benefit them in their monetary reform and they don’t worry about high inflation and all that kind of thing.
Central bank governor Alak once again says the activities of sanctioned iraqi banks continue in all currencies except the dollar. And he says that amending some monetary policies in line with international situation to enhance confidence in the iraqi dinar and prevent a sharp decline in its value.
The Central bank of Iraq has increased its holdings of foreign exchange and gold reserves. We already know that foreign exchange reserves are the tool used by all central banks to maintain the stability of the local currency exchange rate against foreign currencies, as well as to reduce the exposure to external crises by maintaining liquidity in foreign currency to absorb shocks.
Prime Minister Shia al Sadani says we support investments that aim to diversify the economy away from oil. And he says the support for investment is aimed at diversifying the economy away from oil, with a focus to provide a better private sector, providing job opportunities.
Calling for strengthening international cooperation in the fields, on land, maritime, cybersecurity, outer space security. I thought that was fascinating, to ensure comprehensive security, that one of his talks was at the future summit on the sidelines. And what are they doing? They’re just looking at from now through 2028, their whole premise is comprehensive strategic reforms.
He gives about ten or eight to ten bullet points. He’s calling for strengthening international cooperation in the areas of land, maritime, cyber, outer space security to ensure comprehensive security. Science and technology are the basis of sustainable development, and we are working to transition to that digital economy and provide an integrated database to support decision making.
International cooperation is essential to ensure that countries have access to necessary tools, capabilities, benefit from artificial intelligence. And this is somewhat new for Iraq, but the bottom line is artificial intelligence is going to be used to some degree in many countries around the world. And they’re putting in their regulations, to manage it, to do it with integrity.
The Kurdistan Regional oil industry group Apicor, called the continuation of the Erbil Baghdad meetings to resume the export of Kurdistan region’s oil.
Because they’re losing about $20 billion in revenue. 20 billion US Dollar in revenue. That’s a lot of money.
United Nations General assembly today, it says they’re calling on the legal or the federal government to coordinate with Kurdistan regional government and international companies to resolve the outstanding problems and resume the export of Kurdistan oil as soon as possible. And it says that their exports via Turkey may resume by the end of this year.
It says the estimated losses caused by the Halton Kurdistan regional exports were at about $20 billion lose. The company is actually expected to come back online and start making about $24 million a month, which is they’ve been punished for not adhering to contracts.
So ultimately, the goal is to get these guys back online and up and running and oil flowing. So the non oil revenue streams, even though that that’s going to be another revenue stream, but it’s going to to benefit the country overall. Now they have OPEC issues as far as how much they can pump, but they took things offline and then that the cyan port area, and then they just, they probably, I’m pretty sure they started pumping out of the south, in the Basra area to cover that.
so the bank of international teams with JPMorgan and ups to transform cross border payments. Iraq is going to be a digital currency and so is the United States currency.
They’re going to more cashless societies. They’re not getting rid of it all. They’re not just stopping tomorrow, but they’re going to have just less cash because it’s going to be necessary.
Because, again, most people are still using cards, as we do here in our country. A lot of people still use cash. Of course, we all have cash in our wallets, but to the same extent that we had 25 years ago, I don’t think that’s the case. The bank of international settlements leads this project and it’s called Agora.
It’s a blockchain based initiative for efficient cross border payments. Well, cross border payments, JPMorgan Chase has already done deals or done clearing with digital currency and the Buna platform with the Arab Monetary Fund.
Iraq is part of the Arab Monetary Fund and he left to go there and now he’s back doing the project to delete the zeroes from it. Okay, so major banks like JPMorgan UBS joined to enhance global financial transactions.
The bank for International Settlements is positioning itself at the forefront of financial innovation, aiming to revolutionise cross border payments with major global financial institutions and credit card companies. Signing on to its blockchain based project, the BIS (Benk of International Settlements ) is working to build a new infrastructure for international transactions as the financial world evolves. The role of the BIS in leading this shift is crucial.
The BIS is based in Switzerland, serves as the bank for central banks, facilitating monetary transactions between these institutions and functioning as a research hub.
Its primary objective is to foster international and financial systems cooperation. Monetary cooperation, ensuring stability across global financial systems. With its in house innovations, the bank of International Settlements has consistently explored and developed cutting edge solutions to improve functioning of the world’s financial infrastructure.
So the project Agora has driven participation from some of the world’s largest financial players, including like JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS Group AG, as well as global credit cards like Visa, Mastercard.
Dinar with MoneyGram, digital payments, with all these people and all these certain banks. So there’s about 41 companies alongside central banks from the jurisdictions in the United States, the euro, Japan, England. They highlight the scope and potential impact of the project. Agora, meaning market in Greek, seeks to create a unified platform where tokenized assets can be traded using digital currencies issued by the participating central banks.
The significance of this platform lies in the use of central bank backed digital currencies, allowing for nearly risk free cross border transactions, which would significantly reduce the inefficiencies and delays associated with cross border payments. And presently, cash remains the only complete safe form of money. But it lacks a digital counterpart. Agora aims to bridge this gap by offering secure digital solution.
It says central banks play a critical role in this project by Agora, by issuing digital currencies that will be used on the platform. These central banks backed digital currencies, often referred to as cbdcs, represent a digital form of the world’s most important reserve currencies, including the us dollar, the euro and the yen. So they’ve already tested these things and they did that with the dollar and they did it also with the jordanian currency.
Well, they basically tested the Buna platform that’s going to be cross border payments when all this shipping comes into the port. A development road project, all the regular borders, the trade from Saudi Arabia, from Jordan, from every country that borders Iraq. I believe there’s about six.
There’s a relationship to JP Morgane and the dinar and there’s a relationship to JPMorgan and XRP and Ripple, People can make payments with tokenized currencies and they can use XRP to pay mortgages now. So this is something that’s going to be a next wave of the future.
As the project progresses, Agora has the potential to revolutionise how cross border transactions are conducted, offering a secure, risk free platform for trading tokenized assets using central bank digital currencies. So Iraq is going to be embracing it so the bank of international Settlements is the central bank for central banks and other major banks are becoming involved with these cbdcs, as you guys know about now. But JP Morgan and ripple this last week made payments through XRP.
JPMorgan Chase has officially announced that it’s now accepting XRP for both credit card and mortgage payments. This move is part of their broader strategy to integrate blockchain technology and digital currencies into their services.
Well, in addition to JPMorgan Chase, other businesses and platforms are accepting XRP as payment. This includes companies facilitated by FCF pay, a blockchain payments processor which allows payments with XRP, bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies at participating merchants. But in conclusion, with this, JPMorgan’s Chase’s decision to accept XRP for mortgage payments and credit card transactions makes a significant milestone in the integration of cryptocurrencies into traditional banking. This move not only enhances the efficiency of financial transactions, but also opens up new possibilities for the real estate market and beyond.
It says XRP paired with the iraqi dinar triggers speculation of XRP’s rising prominence. So here it’s now September, late 2024. So people were paying attention to XRP in relationship to the Dinars.
If anyone need liquidity from somewhere, they can go in and get it all over the world digitally and fractions of a second.
XRP will probably be that technology, part of it in every single transaction around the world, 365 days, seven days a week, 24/7 no blackouts. And they’re going to slice the pie. It’s a very small slice of that pie.
Cheaper for everybody to use it. It’s faster than for everybody to use it. Therefore, the cost comes down, its efficiency is higher, and it looks to be safe.
It says XRP news Ripple partner. Ripple’s partner, SBI holdings confirms participation in the BIS project Agora. Direct relationship to XRP and this project?
Ripple’s partner, SBI holdings reveals participation in the project Agora cross border payment Unified ledger initiative by the Bank of International Settlements highlights Ripple partner, SBI holdings has confirmed participation in the project Agora led by the BIS. XRP community believes Ripple’s technology aligns with the Agora project and XRP on the 19th, real close, jumped about 2%. Okay, so that’s pretty good positive news.
Project Agora is an initiative jointly led by the bank of International Settlements and central banks. Could be the central bank of Iraq, of course.
Improve the functionality of cross border transactions through tokenization. The central banks are bank de France, bank of Japan, the bank of Korea, the bank of Mexico, the Swiss national bank, the bank of England, the Federal Reserve bank of New York. This project, we hope to improve the functionality of the financial system while restoring confidence to the financial system.
Maintaining the two tiered structure of the central bank. Money and private bank deposits provide new solutions that utilise smart contracts programmability, thereby providing high convenient services and cross border transactions.
So basically the community is just having acceptance to this ripple. It says here that the CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, says his company is seeking adoption in traditional finance.
