Hemmati: banking restrictions on 23 technical and engineering exporters in Iraq to be lifted, with the central bank ready to allocate up to $500 million

Abdolnaser Hemmati, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, told the 137th meeting of the Government and Private Sector Dialogue Council, held on the evening of Monday, 27 July 2026 (5 Mordad 1405) at the Iran Chamber of Commerce, that the central bank has put the case of 23 companies exporting technical and engineering services in Iraq on its agenda and that the banking restrictions on those companies inside Iran will be removed.

The companies' projects were halted during the years of peak insecurity and the presence of ISIS in Iraq. Because their receivables were never collected and they could not repay their loans, they were classified among banks' non-performing debtors, a status that has cut them off from most banking services. Mohammadreza Ansari, head of the association of technical and engineering services exporters, asked that the companies be removed from the non-performing debtor category for three years.

Hemmati said the central bank is able to lift the banking restrictions, but that the repayment arrangement must be designed by a working group including the Export Guarantee Fund, the Export Development Bank, Bank Tejarat and the private sector. He added that the central bank is ready to place up to $500 million of its resources in Iraq at the disposal of participating banks as backing for the issuance of foreign currency guarantees, a step he said could, if the Central Bank of Iraq agrees, smooth the return of Iranian contractors to the Iraqi market.