$1.13b in Loans for Knowledge-Based Firms

EghtesadOnline: Iran’s banks and credit institutions allocated a total of 50 trillion rials ($1.13 billion) to knowledge-based firms in a little more than one year, the Central Bank of Iran announced.

News ID: ۷۸۳۴۹۱

31 July 2018

A recent report published on the official website of the central regulator indicates that the amount–50.08 trillion rials to be exact–was handed out to the companies in the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 21-June 21).

The final month of the aforementioned period saw the highest volume of loans doled out at about 7.43 trillion rials ($168.63 million) and the lowest per-month loan allocation belonged to the final month of the previous summer at about 2.20 trillion rials ($49.93 million).

Central bank data show that privatized banks bore the highest portion of the lending responsibility, as they allocated about 23.60 trillion rials ($535.63 million) to tech-based firms in the 13-month period. They were trailed by private banks and credit institutions at about 14.82 trillion rials ($336.36 million) and state-run lenders at about 11.65 trillion rials ($264.41 million), Financial Tribune reported.

During the three months, the banking system allocated 12.78 trillion rials ($290.06 million) to 377 knowledge-based firms with an average of 33.9 billion rials ($769,405) to each firm.

From that amount, privatized banks once again grabbed the highest share at about 4.82 trillion rials ($109.40 million) and were followed closely by government-owned banks that doled out about 4.42 trillion rials ($100.31 million). Private banks and credit institutions lagged behind, as they handed out 3.53 trillion rials ($80.11 million) as loans to the companies.

Bank Melli Iran and Bank Mellat, the two top Iranian banks, were the biggest supporters of tech-based firms as they allocated about 2.93 trillion rials ($66.50 million) and 2.91 trillion rials ($66.04 milion) to them in the 13-month period.

By the end of this year’s Q1, the total amount owed to banks with interest by 1,129 knowledge-based firms totaled 62.23 trillion rials ($1.43 billion) with a per-firm average of 55.1 billion rials ($1,250). The highest owed amounts belonged to Bank Melli at about 12.05 trillion rials ($273.49 million), Bank Mellat at about 9.14 trillion rials ($207.44 million) and Bank Saderat at about 8.54 trillion rials ($193.82 million).

From the total amount of the tech-based firms’ liabilities to the banks, including interest by the end of this year’s Q1, about 10.42 trillion rials ($236.49 million) or 16.7% of total loans were considered as non-performing loans. Of this figure, about 5.48 trillion rials ($124.37 million) were liabilities whose maturity periods have been neglected for two to six months, about 2.25 trillion rials ($51.06 million) were liabilities whose maturity periods have been ignored for six to 18 months, and about 2.68 trillion rials ($60.82 million) were debts whose maturity periods have been ignored for more than 18 months, considered most likely lost to the banking system.