Trade Bank of Iraq to double credit letter value

The maximum value of Letters of Credit allocated by the Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) to the country's private banking sector has been doubled, in response to a strong increase in demand for cross-border trade finance, the chairman of the bank, Hussein Al-Uzri, said. Last year 945 Letters of Credit were allocated to private banks, at a value of approximately $500m. The total number allocated to private banks by TBI is 2,446, at a value of about $3bn. TBI has increased the value of each Letter of Credit from a value of up to $2m to a new maximum of $4m.