Palestine

The Palestine Monetary Authority supervises banks and financial institutions in the Palestinian territories. It performs most central bank functions with one striking exception: it does not issue a currency.

Three currencies at once

Under the economic arrangements established in the 1990s, the territories have no national currency. Instead three currencies circulate simultaneously: the Israeli shekel, the Jordanian dinar and the US dollar. Each dominates different uses — the shekel for everyday transactions and wages in much of the West Bank and Gaza, the dinar widely for savings and property, the dollar for trade and larger holdings.

Prices are quoted in different currencies depending on the transaction, bank accounts are held in all three, and households manage exchange rate exposure as an ordinary part of life. It is one of the few places in the world where multi-currency circulation is the normal condition rather than a crisis symptom.

The monetary consequence is total: the PMA has no monetary policy instrument at all. It cannot set interest rates, cannot influence the exchange rate, and cannot act as lender of last resort in a currency it does not issue. It supervises banks, operates payment systems and manages reserves, but the money itself is somebody else's.

Practical conditions

Banking is subject to correspondent relationships that depend on external factors, movement restrictions affect commercial activity, and access to international payment services is uneven. Many international brokers restrict or exclude clients here on compliance grounds.

Retail trading

There is no domestic licensing framework for retail leveraged CFD brokers, so a resident who trades falls entirely under the foreign firm's home regulator. A tier-one licence brings real protections; an offshore registration brings none, and the PMA has no jurisdiction over either.

Cautions

Verify a broker on the issuing regulator's own website, and treat any guaranteed-return promise as fraud. The PMA publishes warnings about unlicensed financial activity.