The Iraqi Private Banks League (IPBL) held the closing ceremony of the Activating Lending Programs in Iraq program supported by USAID within the durable communities and economic opportunities "Tahfeez" project, which lasted for six months, to develop lending programs in Iraq.

The program focused on releasing a policy paper with an action plan containing an action roadmap to increase financing access, preparing seven credit employees trainers to train all banks' credit departments, and making recommendations to the government and central bank on making decisions that ease the lending process.

His excellency, the governor of the Central Bank, Ali Al Alaq, said that "the Central Bank is working to establish a loans guarantee company to provide high flexibility to the banking sector for lending," noting that "the Central Bank lent, through its initiatives, about 13 trillion dinars."

"The banking sector is responsible for lending and should not rely on the central bank in the lending process. Therefore, the central bank is working on a national strategy to build lending rules that will be shared between the banking sector, the central bank, and the government," he added.

On the other hand, the head of the IPBL, Wadee Al Handal, said in his speech which was delivered on his behalf by the IPBL's advisor, Samir Al-Nusairi, that "this program is essential to expedite the lending process in Iraq. Additionally, the banking sector has a major role in expediting growth in economic sectors, which is positively reflected. on the GDP."

In contrast, the executive director of the IPBL, Ali Tariq, delivered a presentation that detailed the project's goals, the method of its implementation, and the volume of lending in the banking sector, which reached more than 60 trillion dinars at the end of 2022.

The conference concluded with a discussion session led by IPBL advisor Samir Al Nusairi, featuring a representative of the Operations Department of the Central Bank, the IPBL's head of the credit committee, Alaa Faeq, the company's director for bank guarantees, Hussein Thamer, and the representative of the Iraqi Company for Financing Small and Medium Enterprises, Ahmed Sabah.