Just as the Iraqi government has looked to American soldiers to help maintain order in the country, banks there are looking for stability and have put out a call for few good American bankers.
Robert Willett, a volunteer bank consultant working in Iraq, said Iraqi businesspeople who have recently started banks have little or no banking experience and want to be able to contact U.S. bankers by phone or e-mail to discuss everyday banking problems.
"These private banks just want advice and counsel, and not a financial relationship or something contractual - just simple communication," Mr. Willet said in a telephone interview last week.
Thirty years ago Baghdad was regarded as one of the most advanced financial centers in the Middle East, but little has evolved since Saddam Hussein assumed power of the government and its banking system in 1979. In the 13 years before Hussein's regime fell in April 2003, the country had been economically isolated by United Nations-imposed sanctions.
In September 2003, Iraq established a new set of banking laws similar to those of the United States, abolishing the state-controlled banking system to make way for private banks.
Since then more than 30 banks have been founded, and Mr. Willett said that about 10 more are in development.
Most of the organizers are novices to banking, he said. "They have to learn how to make a loan and other very beginning-banking things that we learned when first starting out."
Navigating a new monetary system and the new regulations is another challenge.
Mr. Willett, a retired Florida banker who is consulting several start-ups, said these bankers want to assure the rest of the world that Iraqi banks can be trusted.
"Everybody is scared to do financial transactions with Iraqi banks," he said. "So they are trying to build up trust, and they need more communication … [abroad] to do this."
Mr. Willett, 78, has been in Irbil for two weeks working with two banks, and will eventually make his way to Baghdad to assist other start-ups before returning to the United States.
Drawing on five decades of community banking experience, he is helping banks put together marketing and business plans and start correspondent relationships with larger banks.
Mr. Willett founded First National Bank of Brevard County in 1963 and was its president until 1984, when it was sold to Bank of America's predecessor, Barnett Banks Inc. He then worked at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. until he retired in 1993, and from then until very recently he traveled the world with Citizens Development Corp., helping financial institutions in developing countries.
In Iraq he is working through the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance's Private Sector Development Initiative, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The organization held one training session for Iraqi banks in Jordan last fall, but Mr. Willett is its only volunteer to go to Iraq and work directly with banks, according to Renee Gifford, the alliance's program officer.
Financial Services Volunteer Corps, which sends professionals to developing countries to advise banks and other financial institutions, said it is difficult to find volunteers to go to Iraq.
To be sure, U.S. banks and banking officials are playing a role in Iraq. JPMorgan Chase & Co., for example, runs the Trade Bank of Iraq, which guarantees that companies doing business with Iraq will be paid. (Similar banks were set up in Germany and Japan after World War II.) Also, a number of Treasury Department staff members helped build the country's banking infrastructure.
Mr. Willett said he believes that U.S. community bankers, who often wear many hats, are best suited to advise Iraqi start-ups.
Bankers interested in working with Iraqi banks can contact Mr. Willett at
