Mohammad Reza Farzin, the head of the Iranian regime’s Central Bank, announced during an economic conference that a reform program for eight banks will be implemented next year, stating, “If they are not reformed, we will move towards dissolution and merger.”
According to this official, the responsibility for cleaning up the banks’ balance sheets is on the agenda, and the dissolution of three credit institutions has been implemented with minimal cost and difficulty.
An important point in Farzin’s statements is the number of non-performing banks, whose names have not been disclosed. However, an earlier report by the Fardaye Eghtesad website in May 2023 had mentioned indirectly that, although the names of these banks are not directly disclosed, using criteria such as “capital adequacy ratio” and “accumulated losses,” it can be inferred to some extent which banks are not in good condition.
This economic analysis website had reported that, according to the latest statistics, 10 banks have a negative capital adequacy ratio, among which Sarmayeh and Ayandeh banks have a worse situation than the others. In this report, Day and Iran-Zamin banks were ranked third and fourth.
Fardaye Eghtesad website mentioned Shahr, Melli, Parsian, and Mellat banks as four others out of the eight non-performing banks at risk of dissolution and merger.
In August 2023, the Central Bank, as the first step in this regard, transferred 60% of the shares of Ayandeh bank to the Ministry of Economy and announced that the next phase of the same program for other banks with similar conditions would continue.
Ayandeh bank is important in the economy of Iran because its owner, according to published reports, is close to influential political and military circles in the Iranian government and is considered one of the financial tools of this part of the ruling system.
One of the irregularities of this bank is spending close to 80% of its capital, the majority of which has been invested in the Iran-Mall project. Iran-Mall, created by the Ansari family as the main shareholders of the bank, was introduced as a bank asset to compensate for the losses incurred by the bank due to inflation and the increase in the value of this vast collection.
Ali Ansari, born in 1962 in Tehran, has frequently been mentioned in recent years as one of the wealthy individuals in Iran in the Iranian media. His investments in the establishment of the Iranian carpet market, the Iranian mobile market, Iran Mall, Ayandeh Bank, and Tat Bank are part of his activities that have been highlighted in recent years.
Most experts believe that the performance of this bank has had a negative impact on Iran’s economy, but despite all these negative consequences, there is still no power capable of dealing with it.
The Iranian government’s official newspaper also wrote in this regard that in 2022, Ayandeh bank, with the withdrawal of a loan of 700 trillion rials (approximately $1.228 billion) from the Central Bank, practically allocated 25% of the total monetary base growth in that year to itself.
According to the Iranian newspaper, Ali Ansari, the major shareholder of this bank, has paid the majority of Ayandeh bank’s payments to his own companies.
The newspaper emphasized in its report that Ayandeh bank, by printing money, shifts the financial burden of Ansari’s companies onto the people through inflation.
