Iran, Turkey Central Banks Sign Cooperation Agreement

Central banks of Iran and Turkey on Wednesday signed an agreement to work on addressing current banking issues between the two countries including integrating the two countries' payment networks and  using national currencies for bilateral trade.

The agreement was signed by Mohammad Yaqoubi, CBI's deputy for international affairs, and Mehmet Taskin, deputy executive director at Central Bank of Turkey, during the third meeting of Iran-Turkey banking committee in Tehran.

The committee is formed to remove banking obstacles to boosting the two countries’ trade volume. Iran and Turkey had agreed earlier to increase their trade to $30 billion by the end of 2017. The next meeting of the committee will be held at the presence of representatives from commercial banks of the two countries. 

Back in April, Iranian and Turkish officials agreed to launch a joint banking committee with four state-owned and four private banks from each country as members. 

Currently three branches of Bank Mellat are operating in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. Saman Bank, Parsian Bank and Bank Pasargad Iran have reportedly applied for opening branches in Turkey. 

It was announced in April that Ziraat Bank had opened an account for the CBI.  State-owned Ziraat Bank, which is Turkey's second-largest bank, has a representative office in Tehran. 

Export Development Bank of Iran and Turk Exim Bank also agreed to start a seven-year cooperation scheme over Turk Exim's investments in Iran