BMI Post-Sanctions Transactions Top $20b

Since the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal with major world powers in January 2016, Bank Melli Iran has had a turnover of $20 billion, the bank’s official website announced.

According to a report published on Monday, before the implementation of JCPOA when financial sanctions intensified against Iran, international forex activities of BMI were facing significant limits, but the conditions are quite different today, as BMI has delivered more than 145,000 SWIFT inter-bank messages in the post-sanctions era.

Furthermore, BMI has established 32 direct correspondent relations and 150 indirect ones with its global peers. The lender has also been negotiating with 180 foreign counterparts to establish correspondent relations.

The establishment of correspondent relations will help exchange letters of credit with other banks and vice-versa.

In the next step, BMI intends to focus on financing national projects that could become operational.

Bank Melli Iran , the nation’s biggest lender, has received $329 million from the foreign exchange resources of National Development Fund of Iran to support export-oriented projects in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (started March 21), the bank’s official website announced.

According to the report, the amount accounts for one-third of the total allocation of forex resources from the sovereign wealth fund to all lenders.

BMI branches can introduce viable projects for receiving the finance. In line with the measure, a number of plans worth $800 million have been prioritized for assessment while a portion of them has been approved.

An amount equal to 1.5 trillion rials ($40 million) has also been allocated by the fund to BMI to help industries.

In May, Mahmoud Shayan, BMI’s deputy for credit affairs, had said that since the volume of loan applications from the bank is very high and the bank is facing limitations, agreements have been reached with NDFI for the bank to use the foreign exchange and rial resources of the fund as supplementary resources.

In line with these agreements, the state-owned lender was authorized to tap up to $1 billion of the sovereign wealth fund’s resources and give them to applicants in the form of foreign exchange loans.

BMI is the largest commercial bank of Iran with over 3,300 domestic branches and 43,000 employees. The lender has 14 branches overseas and is planning to open branches in the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.