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liquidity
News Agency has reported.
Nima was launched earlier last year in a bid to retain capital for import and export trade within a formal trading system while Iran fights the economic consequences caused by the reimposition of heavy US sanctions on Tehran, including the severe collapse in the value of the Iranian rial (IRR). Despite teething problems, use of the ringfenced system has grown with more and more companies being given permits to sell and buy currency.
The expansion of Nima follows a push by the Central Bank of Iran, announced on May 20, to bring in more foreign exchange from the petrochemical sector. Based on a directive, the petrochemical sector must now inject 60% of its foreign earnings into Nima.
Non-petrochemical exporters should inject 50% of their foreign earnings into Nima.
Petrochemical companies' export earnings account for the most revenues accrued by Iran from non-oil exports.
8.0 Financial & capital markets 8.1 Bank sector overview
Iran decree lines up sale of private bank branches and lenders’ assets valued at €1.2bn
Iran’s Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand has announced that under a decree the country will sell off bank branches and other bank-held assets valued at IRR170tn (€1.2bn at the free market exchange rate), Mehr News Agency reported on December 1.
Over the past decade, branches of Iran’s private banks —those created during the Ahmadinejad and Khatami presidencies—have mushroomed across Iran. In doing so, they have snapped up prime real estate in most cities.
The sales are to be conducted through a website called Fam-bank.com. They will form part of a series of measures aimed at merging several banks.
Noting that the excess assets of the country’s banks amount to far more than what has currently been offered for sale, Dejpasand added that the earmarked assets would be offered for sale through sealed-bid auctions.
The offload will include 1,246 factory units and more than 277 livestock production units, which investors can purchase or manage based on their expertise and experience.
“This is a practical step toward unlocking banks’ resources, which in turn should boost their lending capacity,” Dejpasand told reporters.
Iran’s deputy minister for banking, i nsurance and state-owned entities’ affairs, Abbas Memarnejad, said on November 12 that the country could dispense with 10,000 bank branches.
Memarnejad, however, said his objective was ridding the country of too many branches of the older government-owned banks. Some 9,930 branches were run by government-owned banks by the end of the second calendar month of the 2018/2019 Persian calendar year (the month ended on April 21), he said.
33 IRAN Country Report March 2020 www.intellinews.com
