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Edward M Fram


Edward Manuel Fram (1905–1955) was a Christian Iraqi businessman, merchant and philanthropist.

Living and working in Basra in what was then the Kingdom of Iraq, Edward Fram was a key figure in the country's modern insurance industry, as the owner of one of Iraq's first insurance agencies operating under the Insurance Companies Act No. 74 (1 April 1936). This was the first Iraqi law passed to specifically regulate the industry. Prior to this, only 3 insurance companies were known to be operating in Iraq, under the Ottoman Commercial Law of 9 August 1904, one of which was the General Accident Fire and Life Assurance Corporation (now Aviva Insurance Ltd.) from 1928. By the time of the nationalisation of the industry in 1964, there were still just 15 branches and agencies of regional (Arab) and foreign insurance companies across Iraq, including Egypt's Al-Chark Insurance Company. Al-Chark (part of Misr Insurance since 2007) was the first to set up an agency in Transjordan towards the end of the 1940s and was one of the first in Iraq, where Edward Fram acted as their agent from as early as 1936. Fram also represented France's oldest insurer L’Union de Paris (later UAP, now part of AXA) and other insurance companies, along with Shafiq Ades, Andrew Weir, 1st Baron Inverforth and other notable businessmen.

Fram was one of the first and main players in Basra's nascent bonds and securities markets from the mid-1930s. His name is the only one listed in the Basra bonds section within Iraq's sole pre-Baathist business directory, published by the Interior Ministry in 1936.

Fram was a major goods importer, exporter, makers' representative and also acted as the exclusive agent in Iraq for Selfridges, amongst other western companies. During the Second World War, he provided housing for British troops as part of the development of Basra as a "large-scale base" and traded scrap metal left by the British military after the war, as did other well-known merchants such as Naji Al-Khedhairi. Fram also ran the Basra office of Iraq Tours, the country's first travel agency, which had Iraqi Prime Minister Tawfiq al-Suwaydi as chairman, and which played a key role in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah alongside the Near East Transport Company and the Israeli national airline El Al.


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