Rafidain Bank shuts PMF office after US sanctions
Shafaq News – Baghdad
Iraq’s state-owned Rafidain Bank closed its office inside the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Directorate on Wednesday, transferring its accounts to another branch in Baghdad, an informed source told Shafaq News.
The source explained that the move, approved by the Central Bank (CBI)’s Department of Supervision, followed last week’s US sanctions on Al-Muhandis General Company — the PMF’s economic arm — along with several prominent bankers and firms suspected of links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Iraqi ally Kataib Hezbollah, an action that Baghdad described as unilateral and regrettable.
The closure, he added, also came after Yemen’s Information Minister announced the shutdown of Rafidain’s branch in Yemen and the termination of its financial operations amid suspicions of funding the Houthis (Ansarallah), a group the United States classifies as a terrorist organization.
Read more: Sovereignty strain: US sanctions trigger Iraq's liquidity nightmare
Tensions intensified when US Congressman Joe Wilson hinted that the bank — which operates under US Treasury regulations through arrangements with the CBI and an international firm supervising the financial sector — could be next to face sanctions, using an hourglass emoji to suggest that “time is running out.”
A 2025 World Bank report found that more than thirty Iraqi banks have faced restrictions or sanctions on dollar transfers due to suspected links with Iranian institutions or groups associated with armed factions.
