Heavy investment in real estate and business ventures is the primary reason behind the failure of Samen-al-Hojaj Credit Institution to meet its financial commitments to depositors.
“Out of the total 130 trillion rials ($4.3 billion) held by Samen in deposits, only 30 billion rials ($ 1 billion) were offered as loans and the rest was invested in real estate and business activities,” Fars News Agency reported quoting an unidentified informed source.
In other words, Samen has spent 76% of its total resources on direct investment, the source said.
Based on the latest audit of the lender’s books, the value of shares of businesses owned by Samen together with its real estate holdings have shrunk to 60 trillion rials ($2 billion) a loss of 40 trillion rials ($1.34 billion). As the assets held by Samen cannot be liquidated quickly, the lender has failed to repay the depositors.
Official investigators have been stationed in Samen since early December to monitor the situation and a special working group has been assigned to supervise the performance of the yet-uncertified credit institution, the source said on the condition that he not be identified.
The Central Bank of Iran has long been struggling to organize the unauthorized lenders who have undermined the national economy and financial markets by offering high and unreal deposit rates to attract customers.
Some of the unauthorized institutions namely Etemad Iranian, Alborz Iranian and Mizan that were finally convinced to obtain official permission from the CBI sank into financial crisis before the completion of the certification process. As for Mizan, Saderat Bank undertook to repay its depositors but its assets are simply not sufficient to meet repay angry and disappointed depositors.
Ghavamin is another example of a credit institution that undertook the commitments of four insolvent credit institutions before its transformation into a bank that eventually had a negative impact on the financial standing of the lender.
