Iran’s local Shetab ATM withdrawal limit is likely to decrease to 2 million rials per transaction, as per the request of the Central Bank of Iran.
The request by the central bank comes in response to some banks’ deciding on their own the maximum limit allowed when withdrawing cash from the machine. In some cases banks have allowed people to withdraw up to 5 million rials, though the average upper limit currently stands at 4 million rials for the vast majority of bank account holders.
The reason for confusion in the maximum withdrawal limit stems from the past few years of fluctuations in Iran’s currency, the rial, and its devaluation against a basket of other currencies including the US dollar.
The central bank issued the decree as it noted that banks have assigned the upper limit by themselves, ignoring recommendations from the CBI. However, the limit for card-to-card transfers (between two different bank accounts) remains at 30 million rials per day for individual bank cards. In addition, POS (Point-of-Sale) systems have a limit of 150 million rials per day in transactions.
Some analysts have suggested this sudden change of heart by the CBI may be related to their new upcoming policy on POS card payment systems, with the bank announcing they will now force shopkeepers and other businesses to charge a fee on top of the basic transaction cost. With the reduction in the amount of cash withdrawals, ATMs’ readily available customers and shopkeepers alike will be forced to use POS systems and thus incur the new charges of 1000 rials per transaction.
