3,850 Bank Debtors on Travel Ban List

EghtesadOnline: Due to the importance of social rights and the necessity of banks to recover their non-performing loans, about 3,850 individuals have been put on the no-fly list and more than 4,400 have been removed from it since 2012, said the Central Bank of Iran’s director for legal affairs.

News ID: ۷۷۳۸۷۹

12 February 2017

“When none of the other legal measures was effective, CBI had to use foreign travel ban as a last resort to recover bad debts to remove the production sector’s hurdles and increase the lenders’ capital,” Ardeshir Fereydouni was also quoted as saying by Banker.ir.

According to the latest CBI directive, natural persons with debts exceeding 3 billion rials ($78,000) and legal entities that have racked up debts higher than 5 billion rials ($130,000) and also do not possess a valid guarantee, namely immovable property like real-estate or movable property like deposits or other acceptable collaterals, will be placed on the no-fly list if demanded by the banks’ CEOs.

The government has repeatedly warned bank debtors of strict measures, if they do not immediately repay their debts, according to Financial Tribune.

Judiciary Spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei announced that three main debtors, who collectively owe about 30 trillion rials ($762 million) to the banking sector, have been arrested.

It was reported that the NPLs of banks have more than quadrupled from 204.87 trillion rials ($6.4 billion) in 2007 to 863.42 trillion rials ($27.1 billion) in 2015.

Banks have recovered only 203 trillion rials ($6.3 billion) of their non-performing loans in the past three years.