BARCELONA, Spain – Britain’s Standard Chartered Bank will next month open its first branch in Erbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and its country chief told Rudaw it was because the international banking giant was encouraged by its “business environment.”
“Every place has unique challenges. However the business environment in Kurdistan is progressive and the pace of development is encouraging. We have been welcomed in both Baghdad and Erbil and look forward to building long-term business relationships, and in Basra when we open there,” Iraq CEO Gavin Wishart said in an email.
He added that the aim of the bank initially is “to service our multinational clients in Iraq, notably in the power, oil, telecommunications and infrastructure sectors.”
Wishart said that in Iraq, “Large scale infrastructure projects are being planned by the Government and these will require international financing solutions. Standard Chartered Bank is ideally placed to provide the necessary leadership, support, skills and access to international markets to enable these initiatives to be undertaken.”
Standard Chartered opened its first Iraq branch in Baghdad last November.
While violence in the rest of Iraq is at record highs, with more than 1,000 deaths last month, the Kurdistan Region has remained a relative haven of peace, its economy booming as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) works to rapidly rebuild infrastructure destroyed by decades of conflict.
The authoritative Economist Intelligence Unit said in a report recently that Kurdistan is more open than elsewhere in Iraq and the regional government is actively promoting foreign interests.
“The region’s economic growth is robust and led by public sector expenditure and investment in oil and gas,” the report noted.
Kurdistan has cut a deal with Turkey to export oil through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. But this has upset Baghdad, which fears the financial independence of the autonomous region could lead to louder calls for independence.
The Economist report added that Kurdistan’s strengths include stability, improving infrastructure and logistics, a positive attitude to foreign direct investment and strong trade links with Turkey. It noted that, in the non-oil-sector, Erbil is focusing on developing free trade zones, tourism, light industry and agriculture.
The few foreign banks operating in Kurdistan are mainly from Turkey and Lebanon.
Britain’s HSBC bank has a branch in Iraq, but is reportedly trying to exit the market due to reasons such as complex regulations and lack of security.
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