Sources: central bank and provider disclosures, 2024–2025.
How Iraq pays
Iraq is still mostly a cash economy, and many online orders are settled on delivery. Electronic payments are growing from a low base: the Qi Card is widely held because salaries and pensions are paid onto it, and mobile wallets such as ZainCash are used for transfers, top-ups and bills. Bank transfers handle larger amounts, and the central bank has been pushing to move more payments off cash.
For an international merchant, the realistic starting point is buyers paying with international cards and express wallets, including the Iraqi diaspora and people holding foreign-issued cards. Orchestrapay runs sanctions screening and compliance checks before onboarding, then offers cards and wallets behind one integration, 3DS on card-not-present payments and retries across acquirers, with FX handled for you.
Why merchants run on us here
International cards and wallets
Buyers with foreign-issued cards and express wallets can pay through one integration.
Diaspora and cross-border spend
Iraqis abroad pay for services at home, so routing by card origin matters.
Screened before onboarding
Sanctions screening and compliance checks run before any merchant goes live.
Dinar pricing and FX
Show prices in IQD and settle in your base currency, with FX handled for you.
Payment methods
Cards
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Discover
Diners Club
JCB
UnionPayBuy Now, Pay Later
Sandbox BNPLDigital wallets
PayPalExpress checkout
Apple Pay
Google PayGateways
Sandbox BNPLPayPal
Airwallex
Stripe
Adyen
Unlimit
Worldpay
Checkout.com
Authorize.net
MPGS
Cybersource
Sandbox GatewayAirwallex (Enterprise)
Braintree
CommerceHub
Fiserve
NMI
Nuvei
OrbitalBuilt for enterprise
Everything it takes to run payments in Iraq
Local payment methods are only half the job. We carry the operational weight — acquiring, settlement, FX, licensing and reconciliation — so you can treat Iraq like any other market in your stack.
One integration, growing local coverage
Connect once for what's live in Iraq today — including international card acquiring — and add local wallets and bank rails through the same integration as we bring them online.
Local acquiring, higher approvals
We route to local acquirers and retry failed payments across alternate rails, so domestic cards and wallets authorize at local rates instead of being declined as cross-border traffic.
Settlement, FX & repatriation
Collect in the Iraqi dinar (IQD) and settle in your base currency. We handle the FX conversion and the local rules for moving funds out of the country — the part most global merchants underestimate.
Licensing handled locally
We're establishing locally licensed partners so you can process in-country as we expand local coverage — without standing up your own entity or chasing a license.
Payouts & reconciliation
Pay out to sellers and process refunds on the same rails you collect on, and reconcile every flow — pay-in, payout, refund — in one ledger, in local or base currency.
Fraud, disputes & compliance
Real-time screening, chargeback and dispute handling, and KYC/AML that matches local regulator expectations — built in, not bolted on.
Ready to launch in Iraq?
Talk to our payments team about going live in Iraq — coverage, local acquiring, settlement and timelines for your business.