Iraq Banks Overcoming the Technology Barrier
In the past couple of years in Iraq the market personnel and managers have been receiving intensive training to get accustomed to the online trading. New contemporary systems were being installed to enable the brokers to effectively exchange stocks via the Internet. As planned, the whole preparations took less than two years.
Iraqi Stock Exchange Chief Executive Officer Taha Ahmed Abdul Salam reckons that finishing off such preparations only in 20 months was no doddle, as other Middle Eastern countries implemented similar plans in no less than four years.
“It’s a great feeling to see the Iraqi stock market enter the era of technology,” Taha said.
“It’s a promising sign to see the price of the shares of one bank up 20 percent in the first electronic trading.”
Much as the initial preparations for online trading were wrapped up pretty quickly, the old-school brokers in Iraq are still struggling to get their deals done on time. These guys will have to develop their skills if they are to stay in business, otherwise the Internet trading won’t come in handy for them. Unfortunately the majority of those veterans refuse to go past the whiteboard broking. As a matter of facts, this is the real challenge ahead of the Iraqi market.
Some Iraqi indigenous spent so many decades trading via the whiteboards and pens and find it difficult to get into the next stage. A common problem that appeared in all the third-world countries that tried to implement online trading. The youth brokers should have no problem to adapt such a new approach, but what really poses a problem is orienting the veteran traders, who represent the majority of the Iraqi
stock market brokers.
“I know it’s essential to turn to technology, but it’s difficult for us to catch on in just one day. They should teach us how to use these digital screens, otherwise we will lose our money,” 55-year-old broker Akram Bahnam commented on the cutting-edge online trading.
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This article may be reprinted online and offline
as long as this box remains and its link is
hyperlinked online. Written by Darren Chabluk
for http://DrDinar.com/blog
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