Bank owners and citizens protest deterioration of the Iraqi dinar following US ban on Iraqi banks

By ALI JABAR and SALAR SALIM

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Dozens of people have protested in front of the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad and bank owners called for official action to stem a sharp increase in the dollar exchange rate. The move Wednesday comes after the United States blacklisted 14 Iraqi banks. Over the past two days, the market rate of the dollar has jumped from 1,470 dinar per dollar to 1,570 dinar per dollar after the United States listed 14 Iraqi private banks among the banks that are banned from dealing with U.S. dollar. The ban was imposed on July 19 by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.