A number of Iranian banks have published the names of their large debtors. The list includes debt amounts in the hundreds of billions of tomans. For example, the total debt of twenty companies to the Agricultural Bank is more than “4 trillion tomans.”
Export, Workers' Welfare, Housing, Agriculture, and Post Bank banks published the names of their large debtors on Sunday, April 10. The names of the National Bank's super-debtors were also published a day earlier.
State news agencies in Iran wrote that this action was taken in order to "bring transparency to large loan recipients and over-debtors."
The list of large debtors to banks shows a huge amount. For example, the debt of one of the companies indebted to the Agricultural Bank has been announced as more than 500 billion tomans. In general, the total debt of twenty companies to this bank is estimated to be more than “4,600 billion tomans.” Of course, some banks have not announced the amount of their debt in their list of super-debtors.
Minister of Economy orders to identify bank over-debtors
On November 13, 2018, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance in the government of Ebrahim Raisi asked the Central Bank to require banks and credit institutions to publish a list of their over-debtors every three months.
Ehsan Khandozi also emphasized that banks and credit institutions must also announce the characteristics of the recipient of the facility, the bank's justification for allocating resources, the facility amount, the payment amount, the debt balance, the interest rate, and the type of guarantee.
However, banks have so far refused to publish these names, and now, some of these banks have not mentioned any details of facility payments and debt amounts in their lists of large debtors.
The Minister of Economy announced on Sunday evening, April 11, that in the next stages, the names of other debtors with debts below 100 billion tomans will also be introduced.
Speaking to Iranian state television, Khandouzi expressed hope that “this will help the banks collect these claims more quickly.”
It seems that other banks will also publish the names of their large debtors in the coming days.
In this regard, the Central Bank's Director General of Public Relations said on Sunday that the bank "will publish the names of the banking network's major debtors starting next week."
According to Fars News Agency, Mostafa Qamari-Vafa added that these names will be completed and updated in mid-May.
The shadow of large bank debtors on Iran's economy and politics
In recent years, the issue of large debtors to the banking system has been one of the most challenging debates in Iran's economy and politics.
For example, during the presidential election debates in 1400, Abdolnaser Hemmati, former Governor of the Central Bank and one of the candidates in this election, presented a manuscript containing the names of 11 major bank debtors to Ebrahim Raisi, another candidate in this election.
Raisi also said in a television interview during the election that “most bank arrears are in the hands of a few people.” He also responded to the program host’s request to identify the names of these “few people” by saying, “We tried them; nothing happens just by naming them.”
In January 1401, he also said in a meeting with the CEOs of a number of banks: "Do not give bad debtors a platform; publish their names and cut off their hands."
Saeed Jalili, another presidential candidate last year, also said that 90 trillion tomans in bank arrears were in the hands of 11 people.
However, a number of experts say that corruption and the rentier economy in the Islamic Republic are the root of phenomena such as bank over-debtors, and therefore, introducing current debtors will not fundamentally solve this problem.
Source: DW
