The Central Bank of Iran seeks to halt an increase in the number of banks and is open to merger proposals, a deputy governor of CBI said. “Based on the country’s large-scale policies, there are plenty of banks and branches in the country and there is no need for additional ones. But we welcome bank mergers,” Farshad Heidari, CBI’s deputy for supervisory affairs, told Fars News Agency on Sunday. “We prefer to have a limited number of banks that are stable and financially healthy, so they can help improve the business climate by offering better and cheaper services,” he added. Heidari said the ongoing banking reforms are aimed at rallying all the private and public lenders to help boost stability and profitability. “We hope that within 10 years, the operations of all banks will become transparent and the banks would develop a robust financial structure,” he said.
