News

In recent years, authorities in Iraq have been engaged in ambitious efforts to rid their financial system of corruption and address regulatory neglect stemming from more than a decade of conflict and the swift rise of Islamic State, which at the peak of its expansion in 2014 exerted control over a significant portion of the country and its banks. Iraq’s revamped regulatory and legal framework established a new financial intelligence unit within the central bank in 2015, criminalized money laundering and terrorist financing, made it easier for prosecutors to freeze assets and imposed more stringent due-diligence and reporting obligations. In...