Iraqi Rasheed, Rafidain, TBI Open Branches in Sulaymaniyah & Halabja

Reports 12:28 PM - 2024-10-27

Rasheed, Rafidain, and TBI banks' logo.

State-owned Iraqi banks (Rafidain, Rasheed, and Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI)) are to open new branches in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja next week, a source announced on Sunday, October 27, 2024.

According to an unnamed source who spoke to Baghdad Today News, "A branch of the TBI will be established in Halabja, Garmian, and Raparin, in addition to Sulaymaniyah, to increase the number of salary nationalisation (Tawtin) centres via Iraqi federal banks."

The offices of the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) 'My Account' project in Sulaymaniyah have been shut down and applications have been restricted, according to the source.

The source also indicated that there are ongoing calls to establish additional branches of TBI, adding that Rafidain and Rasheed banks will open branches in Sulaymaniyah next week to facilitate salary disbursement through these institutions.

On February 21, 2024, the Iraqi Federal Court ordered Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani and Kurdish Prime Minister Masrour Barzani to nationalise the salaries of Iraqi civil servants, including those in the Kurdistan Region, in one of the Iraqi state-owned banks by the end of this year.

The measure would be effective in removing deceased individuals, duplicates, and fake names. However, Kurdistan Region's Prime Minister announced a banking system for disbursing the salaries of the Kurdistan Region's civil servants under the name of ‘My Account’.

‘My Account’ is entirely at odds with the Federal Court's order, and the banks within the system are private and lack guarantees; hence, in the event of bankruptcy, civil servants' salaries will be lost.

PUK Bloc: 'My Account' is in the Past

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is making serious efforts to nationalise the Kurdistan Region's civil servants' salaries via the Iraqi state-owned banks. Sozan Mansour, spokesperson for the PUK bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, told PUKMEDIA: "My Account is the past and there is nothing left under that name; the right course of action is to open branches of the federal banks in the Region."

"With the resumption of the Iraqi Parliament sessions, we will intensify our efforts to nationalise the salaries of civil servants in the Kurdistan Region," she said.

She added, "My Account is a personal project that directly contradicts the ruling of the Iraqi Federal Court. Our bloc deems it its duty to end the salary delays by intensifying efforts to address the issue in accordance with the Federal Court's ruling. We expect the issue to be solved by the end of the year."

Previously, Dr. Narmin Maruf, a member of the PUK bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, told PUKMEDIA: "Despite the launch of the 'My Account' project by the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance has yet to endorse it."

"The Iraqi government is unwilling to place its funds in private banks following legal and accounting protocols but deposits them in public banks and will only send salary funds to a state-owned account," she stated.

The Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani previously confirmed that they rejected the ‘My Account’ project and considered it a financial project for a particular party in the Kurdistan Region. He also urged civil servants to nationalise their salaries in Iraqi state-owned banks. 

The insistence of a party to establish bank accounts for civil servants in the Kurdistan Region within banks affiliated with the 'My Account' has resulted in delays in the disbursement of several months' salary. The PUK bloc in the Iraqi Parliament is working to establish branches of federal banks in the Region, as mandated by the Iraqi Federal Court.



PUKMEDIA