BMI Shedding Excess Assets

Bank Melli Iran has divested affiliated companies worth 9.746 trillion rials ($255.7 million) in the previous fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017), registering a 140% growth year-on-year, the bank’s official website announced. According to the latest data published by the bank, the figure stood at 4.158 trillion rials ($109.1 million) a year before. The move is in line with the directive of the Central Bank of Iran to reduce non-banking activities of Iranian lenders and reorient their original role as financial intermediaries. The shares of these companies had been handed over to BMI by the government in lieu of its arrears. In the past decade, Iran’s biggest banks invested heavily in the ownership and management of commercial entities beyond their traditional turf which, following the housing crash of 2013, increased their woes. CBI issued a decree in 2014, warning that the banking system’s investment in non-banking sectors should not exceed 40% of their total capital.