Central Bank Governor Valiollah Seif has urged commercial banks and credit institutions to take fresh measures to implement instructions outlined by the Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on the first day of the New Year (Nowruz).
The leader called the new Iranian year as the year of “the administration and the nation: empathy and understanding.”
In a letter to bankers, Seif said the banking system has perpetually provided the necessary assistance that fortifies the stability and growth of the economy. “To fully exploit domestic potentials banking resources have been optimally allocated to productive activities and the manufacturing sector,” he penned.
Seif stressed that to provide the needed situation for exiting recession it is necessary for banks to allocate their financial resources in a way to address cash flow problems in the manufacturing sector. Also, lenders must no longer depend on the resources of the Central Bank of Iran, he said, as reported by IRNA.
In line with the year’s motto, banks will thus be required to submit reports of the managerial plans they draw up. Dynamic approaches need to be introduced and plans, measures and achievements should be publicly announced on a regular basis, he said.
Customer services are to be improved and incoming complaints should be attended more seriously, he said, adding that feedback mechanisms shall have to be designed so that obstacles can easily be spotted out, new opportunities seized, financial services provided, and resource management optimized.
Further he added that cooperation between economic activists and manufacturers should increase and banks’ resources must be assessed in the light of the realities of the needs within the manufacturing sector.
Seif emphasized that the CBI will continue to implement the needed measures to increase discipline within the monetary system and control inflation.
Additionally, stability within the foreign exchange market needs to be maintained so that the transparency needed for investors for predicting the situation of the domestic economy would come about.
Accordingly, the stability of the monetary market and the health of the banking system would also be assured.
On the other hand, in a television interview last week, the CBI governor stressed that controlling inflation will continue to be the bank’s main priority in the current fiscal year (ending March 21, 2016).
He also said that the Money and Credit Council and the CBI have agreed to seriously pursue the issue of the real estate market with hopes to jumpstart it once more. The governor also stated that the interest rates on loans should be corrected so that dynamic manufacturing yields profits. Seif clarified that the economy has stabilized, any positive measures which can accelerate this process are welcome; on the other hand, cases that could recede the process “will not be tolerated”.
