Empirical Analysis on the Internal Control of Iraqi Electronic Payments System (EPS): Evidence from Ministry of Iraqi Finance

Abstract

The research aims to study the effect of the electronic payment system on the supervisory controls used in Iraqi banks registered in the Iraq money market using the COBIT framework. Also it aims to identify the discrepancy in the adoption of COBIT by academics and practitioners on the research sample (central bank of Iraq, the Gulf Commercial Bank, the United Investment Bank, and the Cooperative Agricultural Bank). The Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) is a framework of generally applicable IS security and control practices for information technology control systems in order to achieve objective. The data been distributed on 89 items that represented by department managers (payments, accounts, information technology, control and inspection). These date were collected and analyzed for each bank under consideration of COBIT accordingly. The results showed that The percentage of the weakness varies between the banks, it is the strongest in the Central Bank of Iraq because it is the owner of the system. In order to improve the performance of Iraqi banks that are listed on Iraq Stock Exchange, international guidelines should be followed.