Forex trade at negotiated rates amounted to $700 million since June when the Central Bank of Iran allowed moneychangers to purchase currency from exporters at “agreed prices”.
Mehdi Hadinejad, head of trade department at Iran Currency Market (known as the regulated market) said, "€40 million was also traded in the last three months," IBENA reported.
In June the CBI allowed moneychangers to buy currency from exporters and retail and institutional currency holders at negotiated rates.
The move was welcomed by exporters because they could sell their banknote currency at higher rates than the Nima platform, where rates are usually lower than the open market.
Nima is an online platform affiliated to the CBI through which exporters sell their overseas currency income in the form of hawala. Companies buy currency for importing goods, machinery, equipment and raw materials. In this system, importers declare their currency needs, exporters register their proceeds and banks and authorized moneychangers are brokers.
The CBI's policy allowing moneychangers to purchase currency at negotiated rate was also welcomed by parliament.
Lotfollah Siahkali, a member of Majlis Industries and Mines Commission, said that the move had a rare positive impact on the market stabilizing rates and increasing repatriation of non-oil export revenue.
As per law, real and legal entities can bring “unlimited amounts of foreign currency” into the country after customs declaration.
The average price of dollar and euro traded under the negotiated rate mechanism was 315,270 rials and 314,200 rials, respectively, on Tuesday.
The regulated market is a network of certified exchange shops and banks dealing in wholesale currency under CBI auspices. One dollar is currently worth 288,100 rials in this market.
The greenback was worth 329,900 rials in Tehran’s free market while the euro traded at 331,610 rials.
An estimated $25 billion was traded through Nima since the beginning of the current fiscal year in late March to October 22, CBI governor Ali Salehabadi said on Wednesday.
“There is an increase in cash exchange in the regulated market. Initially cash trade was mainly confined to currency exchanges but later was extended to the regulated market and now exchange bureaus post their buy/sell rates on the regulated market website,” Salehabadi told reporters.
The CBI recently required licensed currency exchange bureaus to report rates shown on their electronic boards also on a central e-platform accessible to the public.
