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IRAQ'S CORRUPTION
العربية
Cases

Travellers' dollars: abuse of the official-rate cash allowance for travellers and Central Bank of Iraq counter-measures (from 2023 to 2024)

After the 2023 revaluation (1,310 IQD/USD) the Central Bank of Iraq sold cash dollars at the official rate to citizens travelling abroad through banks and exchange companies, while the market rate was far higher. The central bank itself stressed that trading in Central Bank-sourced dollars outside licensed channels is illegal. On 4 July 2024 the central bank announced that from 14 July 2024 travellers would receive dollars only inside international airports after departure formalities, so that "the dollar reaches the real traveller" and only sound transactions pass, a tacit acknowledgment that the allowance was being captured by intermediaries using travellers' identities. The scale of leakage has not been officially quantified.

Period
From 2023 to July 2024
Sector
Banking, currency and dollar auctionCash dollar sales to travellers at the official rate
Kind of case
Official statement or estimate
Jurisdiction
Federal Iraq

How the money moved, according to the sources

This account is the one given by the sources listed on this page. It is not the finding of a court.

Brokers registered real or fictitious travellers on the Central Bank of Iraq platform to obtain official-rate dollars, which were then resold at the parallel-market rate or moved abroad (including, according to US concerns, to Iran).

What happened

Administrative reform (airport-only delivery from 14 July 2024). No aggregate official loss figure or prosecutions are on record.

Open questions

  • Monthly volumes of travellers' dollar sales from 2023 to 2024 (Central Bank of Iraq data) vs number of actual travellers.
  • Integrity Commission cases against brokers or exchange companies.

People and companies

The table lists everyone this case names, with their legal status on the date shown. A status in this case does not carry over to any other case, and an accusation is not a conviction. How to read the status.

This case does not name any person or company. It rests on figures and institutions.

Sources

These are the documents on which this case rests. Each quote is given in the language of the document.
  1. Central Bank of Iraq3 August 2023Government statementTier A

    بيان صادر عن البنك المركزي العراقي (foreign-currency channels)

    إذ لا يحق لأيّ طرف أو شخص المتاجرة بدولار مصدره البنك المركزي
    OriginalSHA-256 2322d9ca5d62
  2. Iraqi News Agency (INA)1 July 2024Government statementTier A

    المركزي يقرر منح الدولار للمسافرين في المطارات حصراً ابتداءً من 14 تموز الجاري

    وتجنيب شركات الصرافة تمرير معاملات غير سليمة
    OriginalSHA-256 c97529f78cb7
  3. Central Bank of Iraq (media office)4 July 2024Government statementTier A

    البنك المركزي العراقي يوضح الآلية الجديدة لتسليم دولار المسافرين

    هو وصول الدولار للمسافر الحقيقي وتمرير معاملات سليمة
    OriginalSHA-256 e8911ce29c8f
  4. The Wall Street Journal (full text reprinted by To Vima)31 May 2025Press report (unnamed source)Tier C

    Needing Dollars, Iran-Backed Militias Turn to Visa and Mastercard (David S. Cloud)

    Iraq was a minor market for Visa and Mastercard a couple of years ago, generating just $50 million a month or less in cross-border transactions at the start of 2023. ... In recent days, Treasury formally asked the Iraqi central bank to block the more than 200,000 cards used by militia members due to fraud concerns.
    Original

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