Gov't Looks to Boost Fintechs, E-Banking

EghtesadOnline: The Iranian government is increasingly paying more attention to expansion of new financial instruments, mainly through supporting fintechs and developing electronic banking.

News ID: ۷۴۵۰۳۲

24 February 2018

Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Masoud Karbasian and Central Bank of Iran's Vice Governor Akbar Komijani have become the latest high-profile officials to speak in favor of lending a hand to fintechs and developing electronic banking.

"As the representative of the government in state-owned banks, the Economy Ministry welcomes the implementation of technologies promoted by fintechs and is endeavoring to devise regulations related to the climate of doing business in a way that will create no hurdles for them," Karbasian told IBENA.

The minister also voiced his support for increasing the use of big data in banking, as he believes it will boost the power of prediction and provide the possibility of ranking the credits of people operating outside the banking system, Financial Tribune reported.

"The increasing financial inclusion will help improve welfare for households and increase employment and efficiency by activating small- and medium-sized enterprises," he said.

Karbasian pointed out that financial institutions will be able to define new markets tailored to the needs of customers and help steer novel models of doing business, promising to lend a hand to this process for improving the climate of doing business, which is one of the biggest concerns of the private sector.

"Iran's electronic banking landscape has made significant quantitative improvements in recent years, leading to better and more efficient services even as the banking system is battling deep-rooted issues," he said.

However, Karbasian noted that the government's view is that if this quantitative progress of electronic banking is coupled with qualitative development, it will prove immensely helpful to the banking system and also benefit the economy.

Komijani has backed the facilitation of the process to turn away from the traditional operation of bank branches and replace them with virtual branches that will save a a great deal of time and costs.

"What's more, moving toward banking based on an understanding of the customer that mainly revolves around artificial intelligence will differentiate banks from their peers," he added.

Komijani also referred to fintechs as entities working to increase the efficiency of services rendered by the banking system, but added that financial institutions must pay utmost attention to cybersecurity to safeguard the interests of their customers and prevent losses related to reputational risk.