“As the volume of loan applications from the bank is very high and the bank is facing limits concerning its resources, agreements have been reached with NDFI for the bank to use the foreign exchange and rial resources of the fund as complementary resources,” Mahmoud Shayan was also quoted as saying by BMI’s website.
In line with this, the state-owned lender has been allowed to tap up to $1 billion of the country’s sovereign wealth fund’s resources and allocate them to applicants as foreign exchange loans.
According to the official, who is also the deputy for overseeing the bank’s expenses, BMI has already used $329,717,772 of NDFI resources in the first two months of the current fiscal year (started March 21), Financial Tribune reported.
“An amount equal to 1.5 trillion rials ($40 million) has been allocated by the fund to BMI to be used as rial resources,” he added.
According to Shayan, the bank drew a total of $245 million during the period, showing a rise of 34% year-on-year.
“Absorbing resources from NDFI and allocating it to production projects that generate jobs have always been emphasized by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance and the board of directors of Bank Melli,” he concluded.