Mixed review as Iraqi trading goes wired

BAGHDAD, March 24 (UPI) -- The progress of Iraqi reconstruction will mark a new milestone when it replaces its blackboard stock trading system with an electronic one this week.

The U.S.-led Coalition Provision Authority tried to overhaul the Iraqi stock exchange in the early stages of the transitional government, but delays and logistical hurdles left it relegated to a group of men protected from traders by iron bars scrawling deals on a dry-erase board.

The trading "floor" sits in Baghdad's financial district and as oil prices hit record highs and Iraq rebounds from decades of sanctions, the economy there is preparing for a boom, The Daily Telegraph said Monday.

"We have planned this for many years but faced many ups and downs," Taha Salam with the Iraq Stock Exchange said of the pending launch of electronic trading. "Iraq is a place where we have been hidden away from the world for far too long, but finally we are seeing some progress."

But the progress comes with a sense of irony. Jay Hallen, a then 24-year-old Yale University graduate with no experience in public finance, rewrote the Iraqi security laws while serving with the CPA. His grand vision of a modern Iraqi trading sector independent of state-controlled services was never supported by strong securities law.

"There is a big state sector in Iraq and everybody can see it would be a very big boost for us to trade the shares of these companies," said Salam.

Unfortunately, Hallen's work left the Iraqi exchange incomplete, and subsequently, there is no oil, finance or industrial sector represented on the Iraqi stock exchange.