Payment gateways in Iraq for merchants: Qi Card, ZainCash, and more.

The rules

Who regulates electronic payments in Iraq?

The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) regulates electronic payment services. The current rulebook is the Electronic Payment Services Regulation No. 2 of 2024, published in the Iraqi Official Gazette on April 29, 2024. The CBI announced it in a circular dated May 15, 2024, and said it repeals the earlier Regulation No. 3 of 2014.^[1]

What matters to a merchant in this regulation:

• Electronic payment services may only be provided with CBI authorization (Article 6). Authorized banks offer them with CBI approval.
• An authorization runs for 10 years and can be renewed.
• The activities it lists (Article 4) include electronic collection of funds, wallets and mobile payments, national payment gateways, and payment aggregation.

^[1]

The CBI's legal framework page for electronic payment lists Law No. 78 of 2012 on electronic signatures and transactions, this regulation, and other instructions and controls for payment providers. In April 2025, the CBI issued anti-money-laundering controls addressed to banks and authorized payment providers. So expect your provider to ask for documents that prove who you are and what your business does.^[2][3]

Comparison

Which gateways can your store use in Iraq?

Five providers publish a way to connect an online store. We compared them using their official pages and developer docs as they stood on September 29, 2026.

Details

How does each gateway work with your store?

Qi Card: Qi Card's gateway page says it is integrated with Visa, Mastercard, and CBI systems and uses 3D Secure on every payment. The page doesn't publish application steps, documents, or fees. Merchants apply through a contact form.^[7]

Your store sends Qi Card the amount, the currency, a return URL, and a notification URL, and the gateway returns a payment page link for your customer. You can refund all or part of a payment. There's a public sandbox, but how to get live credentials isn't published. The WooCommerce plugin is requested by email from the gateway's support team and isn't on wordpress.org.^{[8][9][10][11]}

ZainCash: The company says the Central Bank of Iraq authorized it in 2016 as a mobile wallet payment company, and that it launched its online payment gateway the same year. At checkout, your customer enters their wallet number and PIN, and then both you and the customer get a notification. The money lands in your ZainCash account, and you can withdraw it to a bank account or as cash through agents. Refunds are available. To start, you sign up for a business wallet through ZainCash's form, and its business development team helps you finish the integration.^[12][13]

First Iraqi Bank (FIB): The bank says on its site that it is authorized by the Central Bank of Iraq. Your store creates a payment through an API and gets back a QR code, a readable payment code, and links that open the bank's apps. You can check a payment's status, cancel it, and receive an optional callback, and each payment expires. The only currency supported today is the dinar. You start in a sandbox, then submit the integration request form to get live credentials. The bank publishes SDKs on GitHub.^[15][16][18]

FastPay: Merchants join through FastPay's merchant acquisition team, then receive login details by email and a merchant panel. Your store starts a payment, your customer goes to FastPay, then returns to your success or cancel page. Your store must then confirm the payment through FastPay's validation API, and the payment notification is sent for successful payments only. FastPay's About page shows the CBI logo, but we found no explicit statement there about its authorization, so ask FastPay directly.^[19][20]

AsiaPay: This is the current name of the AsiaHawala service. You need a merchant account that AsiaPay approves, and then you receive your integration keys. Your store requests a token, creates a payment order in dinars, sends your customer to AsiaPay's payment page, and then receives a notification with the result. There are query and refund endpoints and a public sandbox. AsiaPay's App Store listing says the CBI authorized it under Regulation No. 3 of 2014, which was repealed in 2024.^[21][22][1]

Fees

How much do the gateways take per payment?

Only two providers publish their fees: First Iraqi Bank and ZainCash. We found no published fees for Qi Card, FastPay, or AsiaPay, so ask them in writing before you sign. The figures below are as each provider published them on the day we checked, September 29, 2026, and they can change.^[7][17][14]

Steps

What do you need to start taking payments?

1. 01

   Pick a gateway

   Choose by how your customers prefer to pay: card, wallet, or QR code. Your store can offer more than one payment method.

2. 02

   Prepare your documents

   ZainCash publishes its list: national ID, residence card, a live photo, a know-your-customer form, and proof of business. The merchant wallet adds a Chamber of Commerce ID or a professional-practice certificate, a workplace rental document, and the owner's bank account. The company wallet asks for the company's official certificate, its bank account, and shareholder IDs. We found no published document list from Qi Card or First Iraqi Bank.

3. 03

   Apply to the provider

   Use each provider's official channel: ZainCash's business wallet form, Qi Card's contact form, First Iraqi Bank's integration request form, FastPay's merchant acquisition team, or AsiaPay support. None of them publishes an approval time.

4. 04

   Test in the sandbox

   Qi Card, First Iraqi Bank, and AsiaPay publish sandboxes, and FastPay publishes a staging URL. Test a successful payment, a failed one, and a refund before you go live.

5. 05

   Go live and check every payment

   Once your live credentials arrive, connect them to your store, and check each payment's status on your server before you confirm the order.

^{[14][13][7][16][19][21][10]}

Limits

What limits should you know before you start?

• Dinars: First Iraqi Bank and AsiaPay state dinar only, ZainCash publishes its fees in dinars, and Qi Card's docs example uses dinars. FastPay doesn't state its currency officially, and Qi Card, FastPay, and AsiaPay don't publish their settlement terms, so ask them. The CBI governor announced in 2023 that domestic commercial transactions would be limited to the dinar from 2024. We found this in the news, not in an official circular.
• No crypto: the CBI bans using electronic cards and wallets to trade or speculate in digital currencies of any kind. The ban covers banks and payment companies.
• Outdated references: some pages still cite Regulation No. 3 of 2014, which Regulation No. 2 of 2024 repealed.
• Fees change: check the provider's official fee page on the day you sign, not figures copied elsewhere.

^{[6][16][21][9][14][19][5][1]}

Maizny

How can Maizny help you connect a gateway?

We build your online store and connect the payment gateway you choose. You sign the contract with the payment provider directly, and the money goes to your account with them. We aren't a payment provider and never hold your customers' money. Our part is the technical integration, testing in the sandbox, and going live.

For details, see our websites and online stores page, or use the drafter on the home page to print a first draft of your quote, then send it to us on WhatsApp.

Read next

Related pages.

• Websites and online storesOpen item
• Print your draftOpen item
• How much does an online store cost?Open item