Queues to change currency lengthening

Queues are lengthening and tempers rising as the countdown to the final date for converting to the new Iraqi currency continues. By 15 January, the entire country will have reverted to a single currency, which has been gradually introduced over the last two months. In the north, the new dinar will replace both the notes of the former Saddam Hussein regime, which are used in the south and centre of the country, and the Kurdish currency nicknamed "Swiss dinars" because the money to pay for printing it in 1991 was deposited in Swiss banks. US dollars are also widely accepted. However, the changeover to the new currency, widely known as "Bremer money" after America’s top administrator in Iraq, has not been entirely smooth. Outside the Emerald Bank in the northern city of Dahuk, a long line of impatient people wait behind coils of barbed wire, watched over by guards with guns. They have come with shopping bags and sacks of old money to change. Some have waited for days without managing to get into the bank because the queues are so long. Abd al-Jabbar Sa'id told IRIN in Arbil that he had 30,000 "Swiss dinars" to change (about US $2,500), but after three days he was still waiting. "We are poor people and we just come here to change a sack of money, but they don’t let me in and say go away and come back again tomorrow," Muhammad Hamid Ahmad, who had the same complaint, told IRIN. "But they have told us we have to come by the end of the month. What are we supposed to do?" he said, adding that his anger was mounting as he had been waiting for four days. The banks offer a slightly higher rate than the money changers in the market, which is why there are such long queues. "Poor people have to stay for several days here to change just a few thousand dinars, but rich people can change in a matter of seconds [at the money market]," Muhammad said. In addition to the long queues, many people in the north cannot understand why they must convert to the new currency when they already have their own, which does not bear a portrait of Saddam Hussein. Moreover, one old or "Swiss dinar" is worth 150 new dinars, thereby compelling people to make more complicated calculations, with a lot more zeroes to get used to. For example, a taxi ride within Dahuk normally costs about seven dinars in "Swiss dinars. In the new currency it will cost 1,050 dinars. Asked to comment on the widespread complaints about the changeover process, the general manager of the Kurdistan Regional Bank’s central branch, Adham Karim, told IRIN in Arbil that people in Dahuk had been slower than elsewhere in the country in coming forward to change their money, and those in the queues now were those rushing to beat the deadline. After 15 January, all old money would be worthless, he warned. "Everyone knows the cut-off date." Meanwhile, to help ease the situation the closing time for banks had been extended from 16:00 to 20:00 (local), in addition to which three new banks had been opened in Arbil specifically for currency conversion transactions, he said. He went on to say that the new currency would only be in notes, so the current coins would also become redundant. All the old money being handed in would be treated with special ink, then taken to Baghdad to be burnt. So far, he estimated 15 billion "Saddam dinars" and 600 million "Swiss dinars" had been changed in the north. It was unknown how much of the old money remained to be changed as nobody knew for sure how much had been in circulation, Adham said, adding that he was pleased that by the middle of next month there would only be one currency in circulation, as many problems had resulted from the existence of several in the past. "And we were as sad as the Kurds to see the face of Saddam Hussein on some money. We want to have other pictures common to all groups in Iraq," he said. The new money had been printed in London by the same firm that had printed the "Swiss dinars", and brought to the banks with the help of the Coalition Provisional Authority, he noted, dismissing concerns about the conversion rate and extra zeroes, saying the authorities had asked shopkeepers to clearly label their goods with the new prices. Adham said the reason people were turning up at banks with sacks of money was that most Iraqis kept their savings at home. Until now, nobody had trusted the banks because they feared wars and the possible looting of vaults. Moreover, with so many people summarily killed under Saddam Hussein’s regime, people felt it was safer to leave their money in the care of family members. But now that the regime had been overthrown and the ensuing new security situation, he said he hoped people would feel safer about depositing their money in banks, along with valuables such as gold and important documents. The people gaining the most from the changeover are the money traders. In Arbil’s "Dollar Market", crowds of people arrive daily to change their money. The rate may be slightly lower than that offered by the banks, but the wait is much shorter. Fadil Abu Bakr of Shno Moneychangers told IRIN that people were gradually converting to the new currency, but others were still holding on to their old dinars in the hope that the exchange rate would improve before the deadline. He accepted the changeover as necessary. "I think it will create problems with people trying to work out the new prices, but it’s better to have one currency for Iraq because we are one country," he said.