Apr.22, 2010
Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mahmoud Bahmani on Tuesday gave word of adoption of new approaches by CBICBI in confronting money laundering.
"Gradually and upon entry of large bills to the economic system, Iran-checks, amounting to one million and half a million rials, will be collected from the market.
"In the first phase, we will try to remove 500,000 rial Iran-checks (from the market) for controlling money laundering, as large Iran-checks can create problems regarding economic corruption and money laundering, because they are not cross signed (in order to be cashed). ... Based on a new plan, banks will sell the remaining Iran-checks in the market with the signature of buyer so that if necessary they can be tracked down with this controlling system. Of course, this plan is not yet final," added Bahmani, reported IRNA.
Bahmani recalled that in the first half of 2009-2010 the industrial sector grew by 6.4 percent and the mine sector by 8.2 percent. In the same time span, growth of agro sector was minus 10 percent due to drought and growth of oil sector was also minus three percent. This has practically adversely affected the economic system.
He also said due to incompletion of calculations of CBICBI the economic-related statistics of various sectors in the above-mentioned period have not been yet announced.
Private Banks
The CBICBI governor said most new private banks of the country in the past operated as financial and credit firms and as long as these institutions do not abide by all the existing criteria their activities will not be authorized.
Regarding the establishment of Shahr (City) Bank, he noted, "Requisites for the establishment of this bank are dissociation of Shahr Financial and Credit Institute and ceding shares of Sarmaye Bank which have been fulfilled."
Sarmayeh Bank is one of the six non-governmental banks in Iran and the second largest private sector commercial and services bank with an initial equity capital of $365.150 million, including more than 305,000 shareholders.