The Central Bank of Iran says it is concentrating on developing efficient supervisory tools.
“The plan for promoting electronic banking and remote service started three decades ago at the central bank. Over the years banks adopted electronic systems and in the 2000s the focus was on linking banks.
That was successful with the establishment of Shetab Network, Satna and Paya networks. In the third phase the CBI managed to institutionalize the use of electronic tools for transferring money, making payments and using banking services remotely,” Mehran Mahramian, the CBI deputy for innovative technologies was quoted as saying by IBENA.
“Now almost 98% of banking services can be accessed remotely and our focus is on improving and enhancing supervision,” Mahramian said.
He referred to the frog management system as an underdeveloped field in supervisory services in Iran and called on fintechs to get involved in the key area.
“Anti-money laundering solutions are also high on the agenda…suggestions to this end are welcome.”
He stressed that fintech solutions need to consider that their operations should result in money creation. “Money transfers using non-bank services must be fully trackable.”
Iran’s banking system is currently processing an average 400 million transactions a day.
The number of fintechs has rapidly increased in Iran in recent years and many are in the process of partnering with financial institutions.
The Sandbox
In another update, the National Informatics Corporation (NIC), the CBI’s tech arm, said two projects managed to enter CBI's regulatory sandbox – a blockchain-based payment solution and a lendtech project, following a series of technical assessments.
The CBI launched the regulatory sandbox to address challenges facing banks and financial startups in June.
A regulatory sandbox is a controlled environment supervised by a public authority in which startups and incumbents are allowed to test innovative products and services and face less risk of penalty for non-compliance with rules in exchange for certain safeguards – such as accepting a limited number of clients or intermediating limited transactions.
The CBI has invited developers of financial solutions to join, specifically those related to LendTech, remittance and SupTech.
LendTech or lending technology is a digital means to provide loans and bank services securely online. Banks and other financial companies digitally provide customers a platform to manage loans and its processes through their platforms. Suptech is defined as the use of innovative technology by supervisory agencies to augment oversight.
