Iraq: Credit Cards And ATM On The Way

Bloomberg;

The Trade Bank of Iraq on Tuesday issued the country’s first credit and debit cards, from Visa International Inc., at a ceremony in Baghdad.
Visa cards were given to cabinet ministers, government officials and financial professionals, the bank said. Bank Chairman Hussein al-Uzri presented the first card to Adel Abdul Mehdi, one of two vice presidents and a former finance minister.
The bank said it would issue 30,000 Visa cards in Iraq by the end of the year. The company also plans to install the country’s first network of automated teller machines, which would enable cardholders to withdraw Iraqi dinars or U.S. dollars from their accounts.

Cue MSM: “Not just a “quagmire”, but a quagmire run on credit.”
Via OTB

7 Replies to “Iraq: Credit Cards And ATM On The Way”

ummm… We don’t have any of our officials helping them set up their monitary system do we? Because, well, um, that could be bad.

Just don’t give any to the Liberals.

Now, all the Iraqis need, is a ‘Justice System’
(comprised of around 3,000 Lawyers, ( appointed to the public trough), an ‘ethics’ department, etc. (That’ll fix ’em for good).

Well, ATM’s and banks are nice things to have but they won’t truely become a civilised country until they get a BK and a Tim Hortons. Right? 🙂

An encouraging sign for Iraqis.
One thought: If in addition to VISA credit cards, VISA gains momentum with “check cards” linked to Iraqis’ chequing accounts, a PIN-based debit-card system like Canada’s Interac won’t gain a foothold in the marketplace.
In a country where there remains a high risk of financial fraud, VISA “check cards” (which only require a signature, rather than a debit PIN) could be very risky. Interac at least has the security of a PIN, which VISA cards lack.