Iranian Rial

[screwball]

he Central Bank of Iran will conclude the process of overhauling the country's foreign exchange policies and rules by the end of the current Iranian year in March 2018, making them more business-friendly.  

According to CBI’s head of Foreign Exchange Policies and Regulations Department, the new foreign exchange framework has been devised in seven sectors, with some parts of them having changed over the years until CBI’s recently-appointed forex deputy decided to make comprehensive changes.  

“Reforming forex policies does not only seek to build defenses against sanctions, but the main goal is to improve the business climate,” Mehdi Kasraei-Pour was also quoted as saying by IRNA.

Improving the nation's business climate has increasingly emerged as a priority across various sectors, especially in light of the World Bank's Doing Business 2017 report that indicated Iran has slightly regressed in improving its entrepreneurial climate following years of lackluster performance.

According to the report, from a total of 190 countries, Iran ranks 120th in the index for ease of doing business and is placed 16th among 25 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region

According to Kasraei-Pour, since 2002 when forex rate unification was implemented seriously for the first time, it was decided that forex policies be announced as a comprehensive set of regulations so everyone whose business deals with foreign currencies could have easy access to them.

 “During the years of sanctions, we stopped revising our foreign exchange regulations and the truth is we are now endeavoring to make up for those years,” he added.

Pace of Change

The central bank has been striving to unify the dual exchange rate regime for years. While it had promised that the official and unofficial rates would be unified by the end of the previous fiscal year in March, the lack of prerequisites such as ties with credible international banks delayed the plan.

Immediately after the administration of President Hassan Rouhani began its second tenure almost a month ago, CBI Governor Valiollah Seif renewed his pledge that "the rates would be unified soon in the new administration".

Kasraei-Pour noted that experts at CBI's Foreign Exchange Policies and Regulations Department are working to update regulations and will ask for the feedback of pundits in the foreign exchange networks of banks before the regulations’ final approval.

According to IRNA, Iran’s foreign exchange regulations have been devised in seven different categories: import of goods and services, transport of goods, insurance and monitoring, foreign exchange services and other international forex deals, foreign exchange loans, letters of credit, foreign exchange transactions of banks located in free trade zones and foreign branches of Iranian banks and the process of assessing foreign exchange commitments arising from imports.

These regulations include a wide range of instructions for importing goods using letters of credits, how to import goods to free FTZs, instructions for settling debts from imports and how to use foreign finances and re-finances.

The department also sets guidelines on how to receive loans from resources like ECO Trade and Development Bank, World Bank or Islamic Development Bank.

[screwball]

They need to conclude befor budget...remember supplementary budget Iran has said has new rate...or I should say an adjusted one 

[screwball]

Budget presented dec 4th

[screwball]

But they already have banking reform bills...majlis is sitting on them 

[screwball]

Postal swift also activate by late December, new rules will need to be in place before them 

[gregp]

I’m ready. Thanks SB. 

[sandfly]

i'm past ready gregp

[md11fr8dawg]

Ditto sandfly!

 

[Freedomwish]

Just give us the word!! 

[gregp]

10 hours ago, sandfly said:

i'm past ready gregp

 

Maybe we will all meet in Dubai. Who knows. Europe has a bank exchanging with Iran. That would be nice. Then Dubai!

[Freedomwish]

19 hours ago, gregp said:

 

Maybe we will all meet in Dubai. Who knows. Europe has a bank exchanging with Iran. That would be nice. Then Dubai!

 

WHEREVER!!  LET'S GO GET IT!! 

[bohica]

I have 100 new 100,000 bills that I would like to sell.  Last I knew 600-700.00 was a fair price but I have been out of the loop for a while.  I will consider all honest offers.  thank you

[blueskyline]

https://financialtribune.com/articles/economy-business-and-markets/75152/cbi-raises-official-fx-rates......

 

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CBI Raises Official FX Rates 

1. Economy
2. Business And Markets

Sunday, October 29, 2017

CBI Raises Official FX Rates 

 

In an unprecedented move, the Central Bank of Iran has increased the official rate of US dollar by 300 rials on Saturday.

CBI began gradually increasing the official rate of the greenback about two years ago as part of its longstanding plan to unify the dual foreign exchange rates, but had yet to hike the rate like this in a single move.

The unofficial market rate of USD experienced an uptick of 280 rials, reaching 4,059 rials at Saturday's market close in Tehran.

Samad Karimi, CBI's head of Exports Department, said external factors have also impacted the official rate increase, identifying them as European Central Bank's decision to prolong its bond-buying schedule until September 2018 and rising tensions in Catalonia that has just declared its independence from Spain.       

Positive US economic indicators, an increased likelihood of US President Donald Trump implementing his tax reform plan and the hike in interest rates by Federal Reserve were other reasons alluded to as contributing factors by the official as reported by the news portal of the Monetary and Banking Research institute.  Karimi noted that the aforementioned factors boosted the value of the greenback against euro, which in turn affected the Iranian foreign exchange market.

[climber7]

Wait

isnt this going the wrong way?? 

[markb57]

yes, it is

 

[screwball]

On 25/09/2017 at 10:08 AM, screwball said:

 

Monday, September 25, 2017

Iran to Join Postal SWIFT in December

 

Iran will be connected to the financial services system of the Universal Postal Union, which is similar to global transaction network SWIFT, the chief executive of Iran Post Company said.

“The UPU’s International Financial Services, an electronic network for money transfers plus applications to access it, will be officially launched in Iran by December 21,” Hossein Mehri was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.

Mehri reiterated that IFS is active in 170 countries and its launch will ease global financial transactions, including electronic payments, for Iranians.

“Iran has paid $30,000 in network royalties and coordinated network tests with four countries, while agreements with five other countries will be reached soon,” he said.

UPU is the primary international forum for cooperation and rule-setting between postal departments around the globe where some 1.5 billion people enjoy access to basic financial services such as payments, money transfers and savings.

 

 

 

 

 

Economy, Business And Markets

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Banking Ties With Three African Nations

 

The trip of Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Africa also bore banking fruits, as Iran will be able to establish correspondent banking relations with South Africa, Uganda and Niger in the foreseeable future, the chief executive of the Export Development Bank of Iran said.

“Paying attention to Africa is a priority for Iran because good potentials exist in this continent, which could become the export destination for Iranian commodities,” Ali Salehabadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA at the end of the Iranian delegation’s trip to Africa.

Last Saturday, Zarif headed the delegation and met with top-tier officials of South Africa, Uganda and Niger, apart from taking part in a number of business forums.

According to Salehabadi, Iran achieved a degree of banking success as part of the mission and reached agreements with African banks to establish ties.

“In South Africa, it was decreed that their government would designate one of its banks and introduce it to EDBI so that we can have correspondent banking relations with it,” he said.

EDBI reached an agreement with another bank in Niger to establish correspondent ties, he added without naming the bank.

The official also noted that an agreement was signed with a Ugandan bank while negotiations were made with two others for correspondent links.

As the chief executive outlines, Iran finalized an approach with all three countries and their banks, based on which median banks in Europe will be used to clear any transacted funds.

Salehabadi deemed the Iranian delegation’s trip to Africa positive, saying it can result in higher volume of trade with the aforementioned countries and boost its current levels.   

[screwball]

 

 

 

Economy, Business And Markets

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Banking Ties With Three African Nations

 

The trip of Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Africa also bore banking fruits, as Iran will be able to establish correspondent banking relations with South Africa, Uganda and Niger in the foreseeable future, the chief executive of the Export Development Bank of Iran said.

“Paying attention to Africa is a priority for Iran because good potentials exist in this continent, which could become the export destination for Iranian commodities,” Ali Salehabadi was also quoted as saying by IRNA at the end of the Iranian delegation’s trip to Africa.

Last Saturday, Zarif headed the delegation and met with top-tier officials of South Africa, Uganda and Niger, apart from taking part in a number of business forums.

According to Salehabadi, Iran achieved a degree of banking success as part of the mission and reached agreements with African banks to establish ties.

“In South Africa, it was decreed that their government would designate one of its banks and introduce it to EDBI so that we can have correspondent banking relations with it,” he said.

EDBI reached an agreement with another bank in Niger to establish correspondent ties, he added without naming the bank.

The official also noted that an agreement was signed with a Ugandan bank while negotiations were made with two others for correspondent links.

As the chief executive outlines, Iran finalized an approach with all three countries and their banks, based on which median banks in Europe will be used to clear any transacted funds.

Salehabadi deemed the Iranian delegation’s trip to Africa positive, saying it can result in higher volume of trade with the aforementioned countries and boost its current levels.   

[screwball]

ubiquitous debate over Iran’s shaky foreign trade and non-oil exports surfaced once more when H1 trade statistics were out last month, showing a 3.2% decline in exports and a 15.37% rise in imports year-on-year.

The data also indicate that the country has a negative trade balance of around $3.05 billion.

Interestingly, the main reason for Iran’s meager amount of exports compared to its capacities, Mohammad Reza Modoudi, the deputy head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran for goods and services export promotion, told Financial Tribune, is the fact that almost everything is being produced in the country.

“After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, we faced a series of problems on the international scene. The economic limitations imposed on us created difficulties in providing and supplying goods for the country. On the other hand, there was the issue of high unemployment and the government needed to create jobs for the growing population,” he said.

“Therefore, we turned to domestic production and endeavored to become self-sufficient in supplying our own demands to bypass international pressures and be minimally affected by the world’s unfriendly approach toward us.”

What happened at that point, he added, was that almost all officials gathered force to limit imports in a bid to support local production. They started issuing permits for small businesses to be launched throughout the country with the stated aim of becoming self-sufficient and generating jobs.

“Self-sufficiency is good and praiseworthy, but only when there is a clearly defined strategy behind it,” he said.

  Scarce Trade Agreements

Modoudi says according to research carried out by the World Trade Organization and its data regarding global trade, nearly half of all trade pertains to exchanges between countries that have regional trade agreements.

“It is interesting to know that the share of Iran is only 3% (that is, it has trade agreements with only 3% of its trade partners),” he said.

Iran has preferential trade agreements with only six countries, namely Turkey, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, Cuba and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while having only one free trade agreement with Syria.

A limited number of goods are only exported from Iran to Afghanistan on preferential tariffs.

Iran became an observer member to World Trade Organization in 2005, but WTO failed to assign a group chairman to discuss Iran’s foreign trade regime, due to the opposition of the US that has been hostile toward Iran ever since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the head of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, said in August that joining WTO is no longer a priority amid America’s aggressive Iran policy under US President Donald Trump.

“Our priority is now to increase cooperation with neighboring countries and those in the region, which offer the most benefits to us,” he said.

Not being a WTO member, Iran has been banking on preferential trade agreements with the limited number of countries it has strong economic trade ties with.

  Ill-Founded Trade Policy

“Why is it that we have preferential and free trade agreements with only a few countries? Today, if we want to expand foreign trade, we need to understand that exports and imports are two sides of the same coin and go together. Trade is a two-way road. We can’t say that we only want to export and not import anything in return. Based on this viewpoint, all countries would only want to export their goods. This way trade will come to an end,” Khosrotaj said.

“Therefore, I think we should be cautious when speaking of ‘import management’. If not properly conducted, this could fling us into a pit of strategic mistakes for which we’ll have to pay for. When speaking of trade, we mean that in return for a part of the other country’s market, we agree to give them a part of our own.”

The TPO chief noted that what happens in trade negotiations, the country offers to export oil and gas, along with chocolate, dairy, cement and steel.

“Then it’s their turn to put forward the products they have for sale, because this is what a fair and square deal is supposed to be,” he said.

“They say they want to sell us textile. We say we’ve already got a textile industry that can meet the domestic demand and imports will hurt our business. They say we want to export rice. Our response is that we cultivate rice ourselves and imports are banned because we want to support our local farmers. They propose to export mangoes, but that’s a no-go again because people will shift to eating mangos and our apple market, for example, will be hurt.”

Khosrotaj stressed that you name it, Iran produces it and by saying that imports will cause damage to local production, talks come to a dead end.

“This is the reason why we can’t succeed in signing trade agreements with other countries. As such, when we fetter imports, exports are hampered as well,” he said.

  No Competition to Incite Growth

Modoudi noted that development of Iran’s industries is impeded because they don’t feel the need to compete with better, more up-to-date products, as the country’s 80 million market is sufficient to consume the products of the small units founded using minimal investment.

“This way, we deprive ourselves of modern technology and potential foreign investors are discouraged from bringing their capital into our industries because at any given time, when the Iranian economy faces turmoil their activities will be the first thing questioned,” he said.

Due to these handicaps, the official said, neither Iran’s domestic market has found a proper modern form, nor has its foreign trade structures assumed global standards, making consumers unhappy in the bargain.

“So we are at our wit’s end here. We want to change but instead we are going round and round a vicious circle. We have to take into account that our resources and capacities are limited. The government needs a change of perspective,” he said.   

  No Export Orientation

Modoudi further said that the capacity defined for small production units after the revolution was to supply goods for a town, if not the province they were located in, and they were geared to meet domestic demand and no more.

“We found ourselves in a situation where there were countless small units producing goods, yet not in an industrial or economically viable scale. Back then, it was frowned upon if an official abstained from signing a business permit or questioned the feasibility of the projects. But the problem was that there were unfortunately no strategies or principles underlying these issued permits,” he said.

“Basically, during those years, no one thought of embarking upon production with the prospect of entering the international markets. The exception was a very small number of industries that were launched using government resources such as the oil, gas, copper, steel and petrochemical industries. So, our production was not export-oriented.”

To have export-oriented products, a lot of factors, including end price, productivity, research and development, market study and marketing, design and brand creation come to mind. Since all of these are capital-intensive, small units cannot and do not invest in them.

“Later, the domestic market got saturated with all these goods and producers faced a shortage of demand. What happened next was that they now wanted exports to solve their problems. But did their products measure up to international standards? No. Did they have the factors necessary for them to compete in the global market? Again, no,” Modoudi said.

He stressed that one of the main tasks facing Iranian industries is to upgrade these units and help them produce goods fit for exports, which is not an easy task.

  H1 Fall in Exports Scrutinized

“At present, everyone is criticizing the trade figures for the first half of the current year (March 21-Sept. 22), saying why haven’t we arrived at the 21.7% rise in exports targeted in the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22) for this year. But no one is considering the fact that growth has its requirements,” he said.

“It is stipulated in the fifth and sixth five-year development plans that in order to arrive at the expected growth rates, investments must be made in the related infrastructures and production capacities must be expanded. It is utterly meaningless to expect production units that are dealing with the same problems they had last year to generate growth in the current year. How can this come about?”

Modoudi said that after the implementation of the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran experienced an increase in exports.

The reason behind this, he explained, was not that the country had an immense production capacity or that it was given the opportunity to use it to the fullest.

“No, this was not the case. Rather, over the sanction years, domestically produced goods had piled up in warehouses because our international trade activities were hindered. With the lifting of sanctions, we were able to sell those products and therefore, there was a rise in our export figures,” he said.

The official pointed out that during the first half of this year, exports declined, not due to the failure in maintaining production levels or export markets.

“We did some research on the products that showed a sharp export decline such as copper cathodes, pistachio, iron and steel and some oil products, and realized that our warehouses were empty,” he said.

Modoudi noted that Iran’s production capacity is limited and cannot keep up with international demand.

“Producers say that even if we work at our full capacity this year, we will still not be able to repeat last year’s records. So I must say that except for a few fields like cement or tile and ceramic industries, we have not as yet created the required production and export capacities and the investments made until now were to meet the domestic demand,” he said.

Modoudi concluded that overprotection of local production, though commendable on the surface, can in fact damage trade and the domestic market when it is conducted without planning and strategy.

[screwball]

fter reports emerged that the banking woes of Iranian citizens in China have resurfaced and they are increasingly finding their accounts closed, the Iranian Embassy in Beijing announced that it is determined to resolve the issue.

"Solving the banking problems of Iranian citizens, which have prevailed from the time of unjust nuclear sanctions, is one of the priorities of the Iranian Embassy in Beijing. We will emphasize and continuously follow up on resolving them in our negotiations with Chinese officials," the embassy said in a statement obtained by IRNA.

The issue first attracted attention in the media when several reports claimed that three lenders, namely Agriculture Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Merchants Bank, are closing the bank accounts of Iranian nationals.                   

However, an official with the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce denied en-masse closure of accounts and told Financial Tribune that the closures are mainly due to the intensification of regulations whose implementation is expected by the global standard-setting Financial Action Task Force dealing with combating money laundering.

“Considering the FATF recommendations and the fact that Iran still remains on the list of high-risk countries, it is only natural that Chinese lenders would close the accounts of people without official business accounts and of those who transfer massive amounts of money in their accounts without paying  taxes,” the source had added on condition of anonymity.

This suggested that the closed accounts belonged to private citizens who are on non-business visits to China, but engage in unlicensed business activities.

Shortly after, then-economy minister, Ali Tayyebnia, and Central Bank of Iran Governor Valiollah Seif also denied the closure of bank accounts, announcing that a central bank delegation will visit the East Asian nation to pursue the issue.

As the embassy outlines in its statement, the issue of account closures and refusal to open new accounts for Iranian citizens by ABC and ICBC seems to have persisted.

The issue was specifically discussed when an Iranian delegation, consisting of Seif among many others, travelled to China in mid-September to sign a $10 billion finance deal, but also met with representatives of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the country’s independent banking regulator based in Beijing, according to the embassy.

 Maintaining Dialogue

As a result of the intensification of aforementioned banking problems in recent days and in continuation of the follow-up for resolving the issue, Iran’s ambassador to China met with the officials of Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sept. 26, reads the embassy’s statement.

In addition to outlining banking troubles plaguing Iranian citizens – especially students–in China, Ali Asghar Khaji also conveyed the formal displeasure of Iran at the status quo and called for the resolution of banking issues.

Chinese officials also reportedly reassured the ambassador that the account closures are not limited to Iranian nationals and have resulted from ramped up oversight regulations by Chinese banks to better adhere to FATF recommendations regarding combating money laundering and boosting transparency.

According to an Iranian student in China, ABC was the only lender that still worked with Iranian students but has implemented harsher conditions as well.

“In a text message to students, ABC has announced that offering any services to nationals of North Korea, Syria and Iran is forbidden while dollar services to nationals of Sudan, Cuba and Crimea are disallowed,” an unnamed student told Mehr News Agency. “Residents of Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and the UAE have also been put under enhanced monitoring when using Chinese banking services,” the student added.

Mehr News Agency also published a photo of the text message allegedly sent by ABC to the student, which read, “At the urgent notice of Agriculture Bank of China, please withdraw ALL the money in your ABC card TODAY (2017.10.27) in any ABC bank branches.”

“ABC shall FREEZE ALL Iranian student accounts from tomorrow (2017.10.28) ,” the purported message added.

 

[screwball]

What we want is a single forex rate, trading as managed float against a basket of currencies..doesn’t matter which way it goes end result is what we want!

[screwball]

Iran's Sina Bank to open branch in Munich

Tehran, Oct 28, IRNA – Iranian Sina Bank is supposed to open its first branch in Munch, Germany in the next Iranian calendar year (started on March 21, 2018), banking official said.

We have sent required documents to KPMG Company, Member of Sina Bank board of directors Mohammad Reza Saroukhani told Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on Saturday on the sidelines of the 23rd Press Exhibition in Tehran.

KPMG is a professional service company and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

KPMG has review documents as regard risk management and fighting money laundering, he said.

Sina Bank and Bavarian Industry Association (vbw) agreed to open branch of Iranian bank last year.

Based on the agreement, both sides will boost cooperation in information technology, food industry, banking operation, financial services, building industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, renewable energies, textile industry, tourism, joint investments and technical information exchange.

9376**2050

[screwball]

Iran to launch brokerage ties with S. Africa, Uganda, Niger

Tehran, Oct 28, IRNA – Iran is supposed to set up brokerage relations with South Africa, Uganda and Niger, the Managing Director of Export Development Bank of Iran said.

'Paying attention to African continent is one of Iran's priorities,' Ali Salehabadi told reporters.

'There are much good potential in this continent for Iran to export goods to Africa,' he added. 

Salehabadi is accompanied by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zavad Zarif during his African tour.

We reached agreement on banking issues with some African banks, he said.

Describing the African tour as fruitful, he said the trip will help develop trade exchanges volume between Iran and African countries.

His three-leg African tour took him first to South Africa and later to Uganda and Niger, respectively.

During his two-day trip to South Africa, Zarif first attended Iran-South Africa Trade Forum and then held talks with the country’s high-ranking officials, including President Jacob Zuma and Foreign Minister Mashabane.

Economic, trade and technological delegates accompanying Zarif comprised Director General of Export Development Bank Ali Salehabadi, Head of University Jihad Khosro Mokhtari, Managing Director of Shipping Organization Mohammad Saeedi, Deputy Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture Masoud Khansari and Head of Rouyan Research Center Hamid Gourabi.

9376**2050

Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish

[Freedomwish]

On 10/29/2017 at 3:02 AM, screwball said:

What we want is a single forex rate, trading as managed float against a basket of currencies..doesn’t matter which way it goes end result is what we want!

I'd be ok with that.....as hoping for it would be a single forex rate indeed. 

[pokerplayer]

Not mine, posted by Yota but felt relavent.

 

  pp

 

 

Iran: We will soon remove all restrictions on the border with the Kurdistan Region

 

Twilight News    

 

 one hour ago

 

 

"The restrictions on the borders between Iran and the Kurdistan region will soon be lifted," Chief of General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqri said.

"In the coming days, the restrictions on the borders between Iran and the Kurdistan region will be lifted," Baqeri told reporters on the sidelines of the National Civil Defense Forum.

 

[Freedomwish]

Thanks PP.....just waiting for the word........yup.