ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The team of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) MyAccount initiative on Tuesday welcomed the Iraqi top court’s ruling to nationalize the Region’s civil servant salaries, stressing that they will continue close coordination with the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI).

Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday issued its verdict on the lawsuit filed by President Abdul Latif Rashid regarding the salaries of Kurdistan Region’s civil servants, ruling to nationalize the Region’s salaries in accordance with the instructions issued by the CBI.

The employees were granted freedom to choose their preferred banks, provided that it is one licensed by the CBI.

“We welcome today’s ruling by the federal court,” wrote Aziz Ahmad, deputy chief of staff to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, on X.

Ahmad noted that they will continue “close partnership and coordination” with the CBI through monthly updates and reports, per the court’s ruling.

“We believe that banking the population in the Kurdistan Region will be an important step for all of Iraq,” he added.

The nationalization process shall be carried out in coordination between the finance ministries of the federal government and the KRG, the verdict added.

In its endeavor to advance the Kurdistan Region towards a cashless economy, the KRG initiated the digitization of the payroll system for over one million public sector beneficiaries, through the MyAccount initiative which started in September 2023.

The initiative aims to modernize the method by which civil servants receive their salaries, enhancing financial stability and granting beneficiaries access to a diverse array of financial services, including savings accounts.

MyAccount has so far registered over 720,000 beneficiaries, with nearly 350,000 banking cards already distributed. Approximately 220,000 civil servants across the Kurdistan Region currently receive their salaries through more than 550 ATM machines that have been installed.

The Kurdistan Region has over 429,000 civil servants, 72 percent of which have been registered into MyAccount, and more than 253,000 security force members of which 79 percent have been registered.