Following multiple revelations of unregulated loans being given to bank employees and multi-billion rial loans to members of the Stock Exchange Board with low interest rates and 10-year repayment periods, Iranian media now report on a favorable 5-billion-rial loan (approximately $8,334) being granted to members of Parliament for housing deposits, with an interest rate of only 4%.
Tejarat News, in a report on this subject, wrote that “legal favoritism has occurred from the Stock Exchange and banks to Baharestan (the Parliament building), while ordinary people are only given housing deposit loans up to a maximum of 200 million tomans (approximately $3,334) with an 18% interest rate.”
Tejarat News also pointed out that after Majid Eshqi, the head of the Stock Exchange Organization, resigned following reports of receiving a billion-rial loan with a 4% interest rate and a 10-year repayment period, it became evident that the 5-billion-rial housing deposit loan (approximately $8,334) with 4% interest given to Parliament members demonstrates that “favoritism” in Iran’s economic structure is not limited to the Stock Exchange Board. In some cases, like the housing deposit loans for Parliament members, it occurs “within a completely legal framework.”
Tejarat News wrote that both the lenders and borrowers justify this “favoritism” as being “within the legal framework,” and such excesses have become a natural routine. An example of this is the special loan terms for Parliament members’ housing deposits.
Earlier, a report from the Central Bank revealed that last year, banks loaned 910 trillion rials (approximately $1.516 billion) solely to their own employees.
However, Abdolnaser Hemmati, the Minister of Economy under the government of Masoud Pezeshkian, defended this practice, stating, “Bank employees start work at 6 a.m. and work under difficult conditions.” In recent years, “despite 40% inflation, their wages have only increased by 20%, so they deserve these loans.”
Hemmati’s comments sparked public backlash, with citizens responding that millions of employees and workers in other sectors also start work at 6 a.m. and often work until the afternoon and evening. Their salaries have also only increased by the same 20% annually.
