The Central Bank of Iran on Wednesday asked banks and credit institutions to withhold processing transactions suspicious of money-laundering.
In a press statement posted on its website, the CBI said it has detected and blocked several “unusual transactions” and fired managers of the involved bank branches.
“The regulator detected unusual transactions for which there was strong evidence of illegal trade and lacked clear legal and economic purpose,” the CBI said, without elaboration.
Through “smart monitoring” the CBI said it found that majority of illegal transactions were done by rented banking accounts, warning account owners that they are and will be held responsible for any misdoings.
In the past two years the CBI announced rules to improve supervision of banks and their financial performance. It said the measures, among other things, was to ensure anti-money laundering measures were being upheld, curb tax evasion and curtail speculation in the financial markets, namely gold and foreign exchange.
Due to money laundering concerns, the regulator last year barred banks from processing payment requests of customers lacking full ID information in the bank data center.
Prior to that it announced a daily cap for bank transactions of adult clients. The rule came into effect in 2020 and transactions via inter-bank systems were limited to one billion rials per person per day. Last September it restricted daily transactions for clients under 18 years up to 150 million rials.
As for other measures, the CBI compartmentalized individual and business accounts. In early 2020, it required individual customers to present documentary evidence for transactions above two billion rials at one bank in one day.
In addition, individual customers should state specific and valid reason(s) for the transactions over the threshold when filling out bank forms.
They also must “provide documents to show that the transaction is for a valid business deal, concluding a contract or other acceptable purposes.”
The regulator also set a daily cap of 1 billion rials on transactions via point-of-sale devices and limited the use of POS services overseas.
