It is not clear what role the associated banks will play. No doubt selected on merit and the interests of the Iraqi people, the associated banks include financial powerhouse countries like Poland, Portugal, Spain, Australia, Italy, Turkey and Kuwait. Germany is not included; France has one Bank.
>Saturday August 30, 6:53 AM
>UPDATE/Iraq Trade Bank: List Of Consortium Banks
>
> By Rebecca Christie
> Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
>
>WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--A consortium of more than a dozen international
>banks led by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) will lead the newly created
>Trade Bank of Iraq, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq announced
>Friday.
>
>The U.S.-led coalition authority in Baghdad created the Trade Bank to
>allow Iraqi ministries to begin making big-ticket purchases abroad. The
>program is on track to start up in September. It's expected to handle
>annual purchases of hundreds of millions of dollars.
>
>The J.P. Morgan-led group will be paid about $2 million to run the Trade
>Bank, once a contract is drawn up. The winning consortium also will
>benefit from billions of dollars in anticipated business that will
>eventually flow through the facility, said Peter McPherson, director of
>economic development for the Coalition Provisional Government in Iraq.
>
>"The real action here isn't the contract to run the trade bank, to oversee
>the trade bank," McPherson told reporters in a conference call from
>Baghdad. "It is the trade credit that will go through the trade bank."
>
>The winning consortium was picked last week by an Iraqi-led selection
>committee that gathered in Bahrain. The group includes 13 banks
>representing 14 countries: the U.S., Canada, France, the U.K., Japan,
>Turkey, Kuwait, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Australia
>and New Zealand. Nearly 60 banks initially applied to take part in the
>Trade Bank, and six consortia made it to the final screening, U.S.
>Treasury officials said.
>
>"There was enormous response to this and it became of intense interest to
>a large, large number of banks, reflecting a view...that Iraq is important
>to these banks," McPherson said. " These banks were making a commercial
>judgment about the future of Iraq."
>
>The Trade Bank will initially work with the government, but is expected to
>expand to handle private-sector projects as well. McPherson said
>private-sector purchases would require a different administrative set-up.
>
>The Iraqi government will pay for the Trade Bank operations and also
>provide most of its staff, McPherson said. In the long run, it is hoped
>that Iraqis would be able to take on more the facility's operations, he said.
>
>"We are very much looking to Iraqis taking steadily more leadership in
>this," McPherson said. "There are many people in this country we believe
>can do it, particularly with some exposure and training."
>
>A J.P. Morgan spokeswoman reached Friday afternoon said no one at the bank
>was available for comment.
>
> Iraq Trade Bank Replaces U.N. Oil-For-Food Program
>
>The Trade Bank will make it possible for Iraq to import major equipment
>needed for reconstruction by reassuring exporters that they will get paid,
>Treasury officials said. More than 50 years ago, the U.S. set up similar
>facilities in Japan and Germany to help those countries rebuild after
>World War II.
>
>Right now, most Iraqi assets are still subject to confiscation in most
>parts of the world, particularly since the country is in default on most
>of its obligations. The biggest exception has been the goods involved in
>the U.N. Oil For Food Program, which is due to phase out in November.
>
>The Trade Bank will open with authorized capital of $100 million from the
>U.N. Iraq development fund. As a result, it will be able to offer payment
>guarantees on any purchases lined up by the Iraqi government.
>
>Treasury officials said that without these payment guarantees, Iraq
>effectively would be unable to import the food, electrical equipment and
>oil refining machinery it needs to rebuild. Treasury officials said it
>wasn't yet clear what role oil revenues would play in the program.
>
>The Trade Bank has an initial lifetime of 12 months, with the option to
>extend its contract for another three years. The U.S. hopes that during
>that time, Iraqi banks will be able to learn how to provide similar
>assistance, allowing the Trade Bank to scale back to a more limited role.
>
>McPherson said that over time, hundreds of banks worldwide would be able
>to participate in the Trade Bank's programs. In the initial request for
>applications to run the Trade Bank, it was estimated that purchases likely
>would average about $100 million a month to start, rising to as much as
>$500 million a month as Iraq's oil industry gets back on its feet.
>The U.S. Treasury provided a list of the banks in the winning consortium
>and their headquarters. The banks are:
>- J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., New York, N.Y., USA
>- Credit Lyonnais, Paris, France
>- Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), Melbourne, Australia
>- Standard Chartered PLC (U.STA), London, U.K.
>- National Bank of Kuwait SAK (C.NBK), Safat, Kuwait
>- Bank Millennium SA (R.BML), Warsaw, Poland
>- The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Tokyo, Japan
>- San Paolo IMI S.p.A., Turin, Italy
>- Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Toronto, Canada
>- Caja De Ahorros Y Pensiones De Barcelona, or "la Caixa," Barcelona, Spain
>- Standard Bank Group Limited (O.SBK), Johannesburg, South Africa
>- Akbank, T.A.S. (C.AKB), Istanbul, Turkey
>- Banco Comercial Portugues (E.BCP), Lisbon, Portugal