Central Bank of Iraq

The Central Bank of Iraq, headquartered in Baghdad, traces its establishment to November 16, 1947 as the National Bank of Iraq, which itself replaced the Iraq Currency Board that had administered the country's money under the British Mandate. Wholly state owned, it is constitutionally independent, charged with ensuring domestic price stability and fostering a stable, competitive financial system, and its duties include implementing monetary policy, issuing the Iraqi dinar, managing the state's foreign reserves, and regulating private banks. The bank was reconstituted as an independent institution under the Central Bank of Iraq Law of 2004 after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government, having suffered a theft of roughly one billion dollars from its vaults just before the 2003 invasion.