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IRAQ'S CORRUPTION
العربية
The Ledger

Islamic Cooperation Bank for Investment (Taawen)

This page sets out what the record shows about Islamic Cooperation Bank for Investment (Taawen). It names the owners and managers, gives the dollars the bank bought from the Central Bank in the years whose records survive, lists the requests that the Central Bank refused and describes the action that regulators took against the bank.

مصرف التعاون الإسلامي للاستثمار

$61.8m
bought from the Central Bank from 2012 to 2020, in the records that survive. This is a minimum.
Tier A
$17.2m
asked for but refused by the Central Bank's committee from January 2013 to February 2015
Tier A
$3.5m
the value of the gap between the official and the market price on the dollars it bought, which went to whoever received the dollars
Tier B

Name, licence and status

Name in English
Islamic Cooperation Bank for Investment (Taawen)
Name in Arabic
مصرف التعاون الإسلامي للاستثمار
Type
Islamic bank
Licence
No. 432/3/9 of 4 March 2007
Legal status
Under sanctions
Regulatory measures
Barred from dollar dealing by the Central Bank (January 2016); in liquidation (Central Bank list)

Ownership

The Iraq Securities Commission page names no shareholder with about 10 per cent or more. The shareholder tables of the annual reports are not yet in the record.

Owners and managers

Being listed here records an ownership stake or a post at the bank. It is not an allegation. Next to each name is the exact legal status. Where the encyclopedia holds a record of the name, the status comes from that record. Otherwise it reads “Not charged as of the date of writing”.
Owners and managers
NameRoleShareAs ofLegal statusSource
بشائر خزعل سلمان
Managing director
Not stated
30 September 2026
Not charged as of the date of writingcbi.iq
Eghtesad Novin Bank (Iran)(company)
Shareholder
Not stated
8 October 2020
Not charged as of the date of writinghome.treasury.gov

Dollars bought from the Central Bank

Dollars bought from the Central Bank, by year

In millions of dollars. Verified rows of the Central Bank's daily records.

Source: Central Bank of Iraq, daily records of the dollar sale, compiled from the verified rowsTier A
Dollars bought from the Central Bank
YearDollars boughtCashTransfers abroadShare of the year's named salesRefusedValue of the price gap
2013$60.6m$60.6m$00.1%$17.2m$3.4m
2015$1.2m$1.2m$00.0%$0$114,926
Total$61.8m$61.8m$0$17.2m$3.5m
Source: Central Bank of Iraq, daily records of the dollar sale, compiled from the verified rowsTier A
Source: the price gap is our calculation from the Central Bank's price and the market priceTier B

Share of the year's named sales: the bank's part of all the dollars that the surviving records attribute to a named bank in that year.

Refused: the requests that the Central Bank's committee turned down. Its minutes survive only from January 2013 to February 2015. An empty cell means that no minutes survive for that year. The yearly figures come from the yearly ledger. The figure at the top of the page comes from the committee's minutes. The two can differ.

What the Central Bank refused

From January 2013 to February 2015 the Central Bank's committee recorded, day by day, which requests for dollars it turned down and why. Its minutes record 8 occasions on which the committee refused all or part of a request by this bank. On those occasions the bank asked for $25 million, and $17.2 million of it was refused.

The largest refusals

The largest refusals
DateAsked forRefusedThe reason, as the committee wrote itCategory
27 February 2013$4m$4mعدم وجود كتاب الاقرارMissing or defective documents; Penalty on, or suspension of, the bank
20 March 2013$4m$4mلعدم وجود توقيع مخول ثاني على الكشفMissing or defective documents
29 May 2013$4m$4mلعدم كفاية رصيد المصرفFunds did not cover the request; Missing or defective documents
26 June 2013$4.3m$4mمتبعاد حصة المصرف لعدم مطابقة كشوفات الزبائن مع مبلغ الحصا علما ان حصة الاسبوع السابق 19/6/2013 كانت 3.5 مليون وقدم الكشوفات ب 3 مليون دولار (punctuation adjusted)The bank's whole share refused; Missing or defective documents
15 June 2013$4.3m$300,000عدم وجود كتاب اطلاق الوديعة ,شركة الزيتون)Missing or defective documents; Penalty on, or suspension of, the bank
19 June 2013$3.8m$300,000شركة الزيتون (لعدم ارفاق كتاب اطلاق وديعة من مديرية الصيرفة والانتمان)Missing or defective documents; Penalty on, or suspension of, the bank
22 June 2013$300,000$300,000لعدم ارفاق كتاب الاقرار الخاص بالمصرف وعدم ارفاق flash الخاص ببيانات الزبان mMissing or defective documents; Penalty on, or suspension of, the bank
3 July 2013$300,000$300,000لاغراض تدقيقية 1. شركة النبلاء ,!عدم وجود تأييد بأسم المدير المفوض )2. شركة (punctuation adjusted)Missing or defective documents; Held for audit

Each reason is quoted in Arabic, in the committee's words. Where a reason is marked “punctuation adjusted”, only its punctuation was changed. The category is ours.

Source: Central Bank of Iraq, daily minutes of the committee that ran the dollar sale, from January 2013 to February 2015Tier A

All the refusals, day by day

Enforcement actions

  1. 8 January 2016Central Bank of Iraq
    Barred from the currency window and from dealing in dollars

    Against: Bank Melli Iran (Iraq branch); Parsian Bank (Iraq branch); Islamic Cooperation Bank for Investment (Islamic Regional Cooperation Bank, Iraq branch); plus about 60 exchange ("intermediation") companies, mostly Nineveh/Anbar/Kirkuk, and Al-Nibal Al-Arabia money-transfer company

    Effective date printed in the Central Bank's list as 8 January 2016 for the three Iranian-linked bank branches and most listed exchange companies.

    Current position: In the Central Bank's list as of 4 February 2024; Bank Melli licence reportedly revoked February 2024 (Reuters, 9 February 2024)

    Original
  2. 8 October 2020OFAC (US Treasury)
    Placed on the US sanctions list under Executive Order 13902 (Iran's financial sector)

    Against: Islamic Regional Cooperation Bank (Iraq branch, Baghdad/Al-Masbah)

    One of 18 Iranian banks designated; the address on OFAC's sanctions list is Building 59, District 929, Street 17, Arasat al-Hindia, Al-Masbah, Baghdad (same address as Central Bank code BIQ036/2).

    Current position: Still on OFAC's sanctions list

    Original

Sources

The documents behind this page, with the words quoted from each.
  1. Central Bank of IraqAccessed 25 September 2026Tier B
    المصارف الاهلية المحلية (Private local banks: licence numbers/dates, managers, status marks)
    الأقليم التجاري للاستثمار والتمويل ( اميرالد سابقا ) ... 408/3/9 2007/3/1 | الهدى ( ممنوع من التعامل بالدولار ) ... 136/3/9 2008/1/14 | مصرف بابل ( تصفية ) ( ممنوع من التعامل بالدولار ) ... المصفي، د.أحمد عباس أحمد | دار السلام للأستثمار ( حراسة قضائية ) | الشمال للتمويل والاستثمار ( وصاية ) | الطيف الإسلامي للإستثمار… Read the rest والتمويل ( وصاية )( ممنوع من التعامل بالدولار ) | المال الإسلامي للإستثمار ( ممنوع من التعامل بالدولار ) ... 845/3/9 في 2018/12/9
    (punctuation adjusted)

    Translation: Region Trade Bank for Investment & Finance (formerly Emerald) ... licence 408/3/9 of 1 Mar 2007 | Al-Huda (barred from USD dealing) ... licence 136/3/9 of 14 Jan 2008 | Babylon Bank (liquidation) (barred from USD) ... liquidator Dr Ahmed Abbas Ahmed | Dar Es Salaam (judicial receivership) | North Bank (guardianship) | Al-Taif Islamic (guardianship)(barred from USD) | Al-Mal Islamic (barred from USD) ... licence 845/3/9 of 9 Dec 2018

    Original
  2. Central Bank of Iraq23 October 2025Tier A
    النشرة الإحصائية السنوية / Annual Statistical Bulletin (2024 data; PDF created 23 Oct 2025), banks' establishment year, total assets, paid-up capital (pages 116 to 117) and ISX listing table (p.113)
    Region Trade Bank for Investment 2007 1,051,981 300,000 مصرف الاقليم التجاري( اميرالد) | AL-Huda Bank 2008 412,604 250,000 | Erbil Bank 2010 | International Development Bank 2011 | Hammurabi Commercial Bank 2020 | Ur Islamic Bank 2018 334,815 250,000
    Original