EghtesadOnline: Bank Melli Iran, the country’s biggest bank, attracted more than 22% of all the rial and foreign exchange deposits of the banking system in the first nine months of the current fiscal year to Dec. 21, placing it on top of all banks and credit institutions in this regard.

EghtesadOnline: Saturday was the implementation day for the Central Bank of Iran’s latest major directive on bank interest rates, which has already created a momentum in the banking system as lenders are scurrying to absorb the maximum number of deposits.

EghtesadOnline: Iranian banks still have to pay high interests on their deposits while their income from loan allocations has dropped significantly due to a serious credit crunch, increasing their losses and ruining the balance of their financial statements.

EghtesadOnline: Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Valiollah Seif has sought to outline the benefits of the policymaker's recent directive to cut bank interest rates, saying it has curbed a surge in liquidity while changing the nature of deposits for the better.