Iran: Foreign Currency Accounts Exceed $10m

EghtesadOnline: The value of foreign currency accounts in local banks has exceeded $10 million, following increasing public interest in such accounts, the Central Bank of Iran reported on Thursday.

News ID: ۷۸۴۰۸۸

29 September 2018

Annual interest rate of 3%, 4%, and 2% are paid for euro, dollar, and dirham savings respectively and the Central Bank has guaranteed the safety of the original amount plus interest of such accounts.

Past unsavory experiences where customers could not get back the deposits they had made in  foreign currencies  had made the public wary of parking such assets in banks.

In related news, Mehdi Kasraei-Pour, head of CBI's Department for Forex Polices and Regulations said  Wednesday that henceforth foreign currency demands would be fulfilled in more banks in the form of payment order and cash provided by CBI, according to Financial Tribune.

Allocation of foreign currency for importing basic goods and pharmaceuticals by the CBI and other goods through Nima, the online foreign exchange system set up by the Central Bank of Iran at the behest of the government, is still being carried out, he said.

What’s more, in an initiative to create more transparency, Abdolnaser Hemmati, the CBI governor, said that the list of all entities who have received foreign currency at official rates and through Nima (which tends to be cheaper than the open market) will be released to the public, with details including the amount and the exchange rates, on Saturday.

The names of all those who receive foreign currency through Nima as well as recipients of foreign currency for basic and essential goods will be published on a daily basis.

Speaking to the government's news website Dolat.ir, Mohammad Nahavandian, a deputy for economic affairs to President Hassan Rouhani, said a significant share of the  business and foreign currency allocated to basic goods are sold at the official rate of 42,000 rials.

The majority of commercial dealings are done through the secondary market whose rate is announced by the Central Bank of Iran according to the average volume of trade conducted in banks and exchange bureaux.

In his words, less than 5% of the foreign currency trade is done in the open market.

“The foreign currency rate in the third market should not be considered the benchmark exchange rate, he said. This market should be evaluated based on its own merit,” the senior aide to the president was quoted as saying.

The core of economic deals affecting the exchange of goods including the import of basic goods, machinery, raw materials, immediate goods do not depend on the third market.