No Privatization of Iran’s Payment Networks

Strengthening the private sector role in bolstering the economy and implementing divestiture laws has been a major focus of President Hassan Rouhani’s administration, but the privatization initiative does not appear to be closing in on Iran’s payment entities.
Sources say despite recent media reports that Shaparak, Iran’s payment settlement network, and Shetab, the interbank payment system, are to be divested in the foreseeable future, no such plans are in the works.
Reports had claimed that Valiollah Seif, governor of the Central Bank of Iran, had a meeting during the final days of the previous fiscal year that ended on March 20 with the chief executives of Shaparak, National Informatics Corporation and Informatics Services Corporation, and made preparations to divest the last two entities.