Global bank Citi has been granted preliminary approval by the Central Bank of Iraq to establish a representative office in Baghdad.

The approval will be recently formally during a ceremony hosted at the US Embassy in Baghdad by Stephen Beecroft, US Ambassador to Iraq, in the presence of guests and dignitaries, including a Citi delegation led by James Cowles, Citi’s chief executive officer for Europe, Middle East & Africa.

The office in Baghdad will support Citi’s clients in the country and the bank will also look to open two more representative offices in Erbil and Basra at a later stage, subject to approval by the Central Bank of Iraq.

Citi’s representative office will be led by Dennis Flannery, who has been managing the bank’s Iraq Desk based in Amman, Jordan for the past two years. Flannery has 40 years of global banking experience and served as the US Treasury Department's Financial Attaché at the US Embassy in Baghdad immediately prior to joining Citi.

“Iraq is an important market, with an economy that has substantial potential over time. Having a presence in Iraq will position us to better attune our services to the banking needs of our clients as they grow and develop their businesses in the country,” said Cowles.

“It will also help us to provide liaison functions for Citi’s clients globally and contribute to the development of Iraq’s banking and capital markets.”

The representative office will be supported by Citi’s offices in Amman, Jordan as well as Dubai, UAE.

Citi has been in the Middle East for over 50 years and offers full scale institutional banking services in UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. – TradeArabia News Service