Access to Blocked Forex Assets: CBI

CBI boss: We held constructive talks with our trading partners in recent weeks, including in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, China and Iraq. As a result a big part of our frozen assets became accessible.

News ID: ۷۵۲۲۰۱

27 January 2023

The governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Mohammad Reza Farzin, said the bank has gained access to a big part of its blocked assets in some foreign countries and is using it to control currency rates.

"Stability in the markets is CBI’s top priority…We held constructive negotiations with our trading partners in recent weeks, including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, China and Iraq.

A big part of our frozen assets became accessible as the result of the talks," Farzin told state TV late on Sunday.

"On Sunday we supplied the Nima market with $300 million from the $10 billion of our assets in Trade Bank of Iraq," he said, "We will continue to offer forex via Nima for imports."

Nima is an online platform affiliated to the CBI where exporters sell their overseas currency and companies buy for importing goods, machinery, equipment and raw material.

The senior banker added that foreign currency held in China were not attractive for importers in the Nima platform. "Allocation of resources from China [blocked due to the US sanctions] used to take almost 21 days…We have reduced that period now to 48 hours and these resources are also being purchased via Nima."