Page 32 - IRANRptAug21

7.1 Cryptocurrency
Iranian bureaux de change banned from trading crypto
Tehran’s Economic Security Police have introduced a ban on Iranian bureaux de change trading cryptocurrencies, ISNA reported on May 17. As the Iranian rial (IRR) has lost most of its value in day-to-day foreign exchange trading, exchange bureaux in the country have looked at alternatives to regular fiat currency transfers in order to make a living. Those alternatives have included cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Etherium.
Police Colonel Ali Valipour Goudarzi in a press conference said the Tehran Economic Security Police would maintain a ban on such trading. A close eye, for instance, will be kept on Tehran’s Ferdowsi Street, the epicentre of FX trading in Iran.
Goudarzi went on to praise the Tehran Economic Security Police as one of the newest units in the NAJA (the police forces of the Islamic Republic), saying: “This section has done great things. It’s dealt with economic crimes such as land grabs and collusion in government transactions, it’s monitored capital markets, the currency and the sovereign coin markets and it’s arrested large bank debtors, and so forth.”
Separately, the Tehran Times reported on May 16 that cryptocurrency miners found to be using household electricity are to face heavy fines.
The move comes ahead of the summer when Tehran struggles to provide enough power for the city dwellers.
7.2 Forex platform
Iran’s central bank launching ‘Diba’ platform to supervise banks’ operations in forex
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has launched a new financial platform dubbed “Diba” to supervise banking operations in foreign exchange nationwide, IBENA has reported the CEO of the state-owned Informatics Services Corporation as saying.
According to the information disclosed, Diba will play a role in the regulation of the foreign exchange market, similarly to “Nima” and “Shaparak”, two other financial mechanisms launched by the national lender in recent years against a backdrop of market volatility and disruption caused by US sanctions.
“The Diba [system] is a regulatory platform like Shaparak, developed to regulate the function of payment service provider (PSP) companies,” Aboutaleb Najafi said, adding: “Banks have begun to offer open banking services, which allows [software] developers to create applications and offer innovative financial instruments [and mechanisms].”
When Diba is fully operational, banks will be required to integrate their internal systems with the mechanism so that the CBI can observe account-based transactions, the CEO added.
The new system would allow the CBI to have oversight of inter-bank transactions as opposed to card-to-card transactions, which it presently has. Diba will not be in competition with so-called open banking operations where banks interact with third party PSPs. Whilst the system will play a part in these operations, it function is to allow the CBI to access accounts.
32 IRAN Country Report August 2021 www.intellinews.com