Skip to content
IRAQ'S CORRUPTION
العربية
The Ledger

Misk Islamic Bank

This page sets out what the record shows about Misk Islamic Bank. 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 مسك الإسلامي

Name, licence and status

Name in English
Misk Islamic Bank
Name in Arabic
مصرف مسك الإسلامي
Other names
  • Al-Arabi Al-Islami Bank (العربي الاسلامي)
    Former name in the Central Bank's list. Licensed on 9 April 2023. It is a different bank from Al-Arabiya Islamic Bank.
    Central Bank of Iraq
Type
Islamic bank
Licence
No. 10413/3/9 of 9 April 2023
Regulatory measures
Reported barred from dollar dealing (February 2025); the Central Bank denied it and no document confirms it

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”.

No owners or managers are recorded for this bank yet.

Dollars bought from the Central Bank

No purchases by this bank appear in the surviving records from 2012 to 2020.

What the Central Bank refused

The committee's surviving minutes, from January 2013 to February 2015, record no refusal for this bank.

Enforcement actions

  1. 16 February 2025Central Bank of Iraq (reported by Reuters; the Central Bank denied)
    Reported ban on dollar transactions

    Against: Al-Mashreq Al-Arabi Islamic Bank; United Bank for Investment; Al-Sanam (Sinam) Islamic Bank; Misk Islamic Bank; Ameen (Amin) Iraq Islamic Bank; and the payment firms Amwal, Al-Saqi Payment, Aqsa Payment

    Reuters (two sources) reported the ban; the Central Bank denied that US sanctions had been imposed (The New Arab, 17 February 2025). Status of implementation not confirmed by a primary document; Al-Mashreq Al-Arabi was later named (July 2026) among restricted banks cleared to return to non-dollar channels. The Wall Street Journal (31 May 2025) later reported that the US Treasury 'blacklisted' three Iraqi card issuers suspected of militia ties, including Al Saqi Electronic Payment Company, without naming a legal instrument; OFAC's list does not name these companies as of the date of writing.

    Current position: Reported and disputed. The record holds no Central Bank list that confirms it.

    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