Trade Bank of Iraq (TBI) says the volume of letters of credit (L/Cs) it has now issued has now reached approximately US$30 billion over the last four years.

This appears to put the bank well on track towards reaching the L/C target for 2008 that it set earlier this year.

New ATMs

The new L/C figure was revealed during the opening of TBI's installation of the first ATM machines to the city of Najaf, one of the main religious cities in Iraq and a major tourist and commercial centre about 160km south of Baghdad.

Further TBI branch openings are planned in the coming months.

L/C performance

Established to finance trade and help in the reconstruction of the country, TBI had planned to issue about US$7.5 billion in L/Cs this year according a top official (DC World News, 8 March 2008).

At the end of last year the bank said it had written credits to the value of US$25 billion since it was established in 2003, which means that this year TBI appears to have already written L/C business of around US$5 billion.

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