Kurdistan seeks CBI green light to launch Nishtiman Bank

Shafaq News- Erbil

The National Bank of Kurdistan, known as Nishtiman Bank, is awaiting final authorization from the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) to begin operations and extend loans to citizens, the Kurdish Ministry of Finance and Economy said on Thursday.

In a statement, Hawri Kamal, legal adviser at the ministry, noted that the ministry secured the bank’s headquarters and that officials selected the proposed board members and submitted their names for ratification as part of the licensing process.

Nishtiman Bank, he added, will provide financial advances to public employees and citizens, including mortgages, car financing, and support for agricultural and industrial projects, as well as small loans, with the scale and structure of these facilities to be determined in line with the bank’s financial capacity once it formally begins operations.

Mouloud Saber, Director General of Commercial Banks in the Kurdistan Region, had earlier said the bank forms part of broader efforts to regulate the sector, which includes 94 state-owned and private banks, and to reorganize administrative structures within government banks. The bank’s capital stands at 250 billion Iraqi dinars (approximately $164M), with 25 billion dinars deposited in cash at the Central Bank’s Kurdistan branch and the remaining 225 billion dinars placed in commercial banks.