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protect current workers’ positions amid the recession-hit economy. However, it is likely that many will lose their jobs as branch numbers are reduced over time.
The banks have differing levels of indebtedness, including from purchases of non-banking assets, the seizure of debtors’ assets and failures to have minimum capital requirements under the CBI rules.
The merging of the banks is believed to be seen by officials as part of Iran’s realisation of the much-delayed Palermo convention on anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT). When completed the merger will mean significant oversight from regulators in the country, and it will be welcomed by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that has subjected Iran to special measures for slowness in applying AML/CFT requirements to loans.
8.1.6 ​Bank news
Melli Bank Iran says it’s divested IRR17.4tn of non-financial assets
CEO of Iran’s Maskan Bank reportedly passes away with coronavirus
Melli Bank Iran (MBI) has announced that it divested non-financial assets valued at IRR17.4tn ($102mn at the free market rate) during the last Persian year (ended March 9), Tehran’s Financial Tribune has reported. The Iranian banking system was in 2017 instructed by the Rouhani administration to offload all non-core assets as part of a wider sell-off of government-owned assets by semi-state-owned enterprises and banks. Among MBI’s major sell-offs during the previous Persian year was an 81% stake in large mineral company Madan Shekafan Tehran Co. It was purchased by a private buyer during a tender process.
However, several state-owned enterprises that have landed on the bank’s books over the years remain unsold and in liquidation and insolvent.
Last November, MBI failed to find a buyer for the National Development Investment Company, which it listed as having a value of €1.4bn. The business appears to have a level of debt that makes it unattractive to buyers. Other failed sales concern retail bank branches in Tehran and elsewhere. MBI is attempting to squeeze out branches on the high street that are close to one another.
Banks in Iran own IRR1 quadrillion ($23.8bn at the free market rate) in non-core assets earmarked for sale, according to local media reports.
The CEO of Iran’s Maskan Bank, Abolghasem Rahimi Anaraki, has died after contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19), Fars News Agency reported on April 26.
Rahimi Anaraki was CEO of Maskan for several years after spending more than three decades at the bank, known as a mortgage provider. His previous positions at the bank included director of planning and deputy director of organisation.
Many people of note in Iran’s private and government sector have died after becoming ill with the coronavirus in the pandemic.
As of April 27, Iran had logged 91,472 coronavirus cases and the death of 5,806 people who were recorded as COVID-19-positive.
The official picture of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran is not thought to paint the true extent of the COVID-19 health crisis in the country, partly because testing remains limited. There are widely varying accounts of how much worse the reality is perceived to be.
Private sector hospitals are reported to be selling tests at Iranian rial (IRR)
36​ IRAN Country Report June 2020 www.intellinews.com