Success Stories

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Over the past few years, TBI has financed many projects. One of the major projects, a true success story, is the Erbil Power Plant in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Upon completion, this power plant will supply a net active output of 500 MW/hour to the Iraqi Electricity Grid. That equates to 14% of the current Iraqi network and 36% of the electricity needs of Kurdistan. This power project is being built by a private sector company at a cost of around US$ 240 million and TBI has helped by establishing Letters of Credit for the import of equipment for this power plant. TBI has also part-financed the plant by extending direct credit facilities.

TBI has been working steadily on increasing the number of cardholders within a well planned strategy. During 2007, the department:

1. Restructured and expanded the Visa department. Recruited and trained a dedicated team to operate the Visa Card System at TBI and its branches
2. Increased the number of TBI Visa Cards by 84.2% from 2,578 to 4,750. The number of cardholders in December 2005 was only 385. This reflects the acceptance of the Iraqi people of the benefit of using the Visa Card as well as cash
3. Expanded issuance of the Visa Cards. TBI’s branches in the cities of Baghdad, Basrah, Sulymania and Erbil are now issuing Visa Cards to their customers.
4. Executed a plan to train and develop the department team on Visa operating rules and regulations with Visa Business School.
5. Introduced the security and saftety features of the usage of TBI Visa Card to cardholders of TBI and its branches
6. Increased the number of ATMs in Iraq that now accept international Visa Cards to three. They are installed in Baghdad and Erbil.
7. Extended TBI Visa debit card awareness to the staff members of corporate clients, and government offices.

This was an essential but highly challenging. We are pleased that our goal has been achieved but it has taken much long than anticipated. See details below:

As TBI’s business grew the decision was taken to develop ‘Core Banking Software’ to ensure a smooth flow of work within TBI’s increasingly voluminous business. As such, TBI looked to acquire a branch automation system preferring a product vendor strong in the retail banking space and trade finance because more than 80% of TBI’s business was documentary credit and trade finance.

Misys International Banking Systems Ltd., widely recognized for its core banking solutions, was chosen in July 2005. Misys has a recognized track-record globally and regionally for their design, development and delivery of ‘Core Banking Solutions’.

The project commenced in October 2005 and phase one of the testing was completed in April 2006. Hands on training to employees of the TBI was provided in April 2006. However, the final implementation stage was faced with challenges that delayed the Bank’s projected time line for several months, which impacted the production of year end accounts for 2006.

The new systems went live in May 2007. However, as it is often the case with new systems, there were initial teething problems.

TBI acts as a catalyst for the regeneration of Iraq by providing direct finance for major infrastructure projects in Iraq.

During 2007, our trade finance operations remain the main service of TBI. For example, in letters of credit, 1,110 Letters of Credit were issued to the government sector amounting to US$ 6.06 billion (2006: US 4.59 billion), an increase of 32% year-on-year.

During 2007, 144 Letters of Credit were issued to the private sector amounting to US$ 855.7 million (2006: US$ 473.6 million) an increase of 80.6% year-on-year.

During the year 2007 trade finance software (“Trade Innovation”) was successfully implemented and this has drastically reduced the time utilized for processing of trade finance transactions thus improving customer service.