TEHRAN (Iran News) The word Yankee has several meanings depending on the geographical region and historical context in which it is used:

In the northeastern United States (especially New England), it refers to residents of states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut. Historically, this term is often associated with hard work, frugality, and traditionalism.

In many countries (such as in Europe, Asia, and Latin America), it is used to refer to an American citizen—usually informally, and sometimes with humor or sarcasm.

This word can sometimes carry a negative connotation (especially when used by non-Americans in a derogatory tone), but within the U.S. it is usually neutral or even a point of pride (especially in New England).

In my usage here, the intent is to link the goals of the current banking system to serving the interests of the Yankees—that is, Americans.

From the moment private banking was officially introduced in Iran through British arrangements, until today—nearly 35 years later—the harms of this decision have been repeatedly discussed in economic forums. Yet no real action has been taken to prevent these obvious damages from continuing.

Among these harms are: Removal of the government’s policymaking authority over the nation’s monetary sovereignty; Permanent dominance of the monetary economy over the real (financial) economy; The hidden, unquantifiable realm of money creation; Constant competition to keep interest rates high; Continuation of usurious banking transactions; Directed allocation of loans according to hidden dictates from think tanks; Prolonged imbalance in operational accounts and debts to the central bank; Failure to implement socially resilient laws and resolutions; and unauthorized entry into business ownership and focus on non-banking operations.

These are only a small part of the destructive areas in Iran’s economy—areas that no power seems able to halt.

In a country that claims to follow religion and the Qur’an, selling money and profiting from the mere existence of money is considered permissible, and the Qur’anic declaration of war against usury is ignored. We both consume and pay usury, staining the very soul of the Iranian Muslim nation with this forbidden practice.

Members of parliament—at least those who genuinely worry about people’s livelihoods and suffer from the continuation of inflation above 40%—naively believe that with new laws they can equip the Central Bank to control the mafia-like flow of money. But they fail to realize that the very establishment of these banks was the doing of the Central Bank. If the Central Bank were not aligned with this system, we would not be where we are today.

Look at the exchange rate: other than the Central Bank, who raised it from 70 rials to 900,000 rials?

Look at the growth of the monetary base: who else but the Central Bank has increased its figures every year—indeed almost every month?

Look at the banks’ imbalances: who, other than the Central Bank, has been responsible for their supervision and control?

If there weren’t another “bowl behind this bowl” (hidden hands at work), would things have reached this point?

The Minister of Economy has little authority over the economic sphere.

The sentence I used as the title of this brief article encapsulates everything said and unsaid: As long as this banking system exists, the world belongs to the Yankees— meaning that this banking system does nothing to benefit the Iranian people. Rather, its actions serve the interests of the inherent enemies of the Islamic Republic: the British and the Americans.

The way to save the nation lies in merging all banks into the Central Bank under governmental stewardship, with an oversight body similar to the Supreme Audit Court to supervise operations.

For more than 30 years, I have believed that the salvation of Iran’s economy lies in a unified banking system with ten specialized branches. Until this is achieved, this economic patient will only deteriorate further with each passing day.

With the hope—and prayer—for the rise of genuine revolutionary resolve, not fake resolve.

May God help us all.

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Rais attended the Glass Building of the Central Bank on Sunday morning and first met the Governor of the Central Bank, the deputy heads of information technology and its managers and in the meeting he was informed about the functioning of the monitoring systems and intelligent monitoring of financial transactions.

The President then attended the meeting of senior managers of the Central Bank and after listening to the report of the Governor of the Central Bank, he pointed out the “important position of the Central Bank in the management of monetary and financial resources and the reform of the banking system” and defined the 10 missions for its transformation and improvement.

Raisi called the central bank the think tank and monitoring body of the monetary and financial policies of the country and said, “The central bank should vigorously advance the path of reforming and upgrading the banking system and supervise the implementation of the country’s monetary and financial policies”.

In this meeting, the President described strengthening the value of the national currency, correcting the imbalance of banks, stopping the annual growth of liquidity, correcting the portfolio of foreign exchange reserves in accordance with the country’s investment and business needs, expanding the range of collateral and facilitating the collateralization process, activating the commercial account, strengthening the supervisory and supply systems and providing the capital turnover of production units as the central bank’s main missions.

Raisi declared “stopping the growth of liquidity and managing money creation” as an important mission of the Central Bank and added, “The growth of liquidity is not a concern if it is directed towards production by management, but if it moves towards brokery in the market, it will have devastating consequences”.

Referring to the praise of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution for the government’s action in properly strictness in controlling the growth of the balance sheet, the President obliged the Central Bank to control the growth of the banks’ money creation by imposing a ceiling on the growth of the banks’ debts (deposits) and to control the annual growth of the country’s liquidity until the end of year 1402 to reach below 25%”.

Expressing his satisfaction with the state of the Central Bank’s monitoring and supervisory systems, the President said, “Thank God, we are in good condition in the field of collecting and monitoring data and information, and this information can help financial transparency in the country”.

Raisi described the timely action to prevent violations of rules as one of the important examples of using the information collected by these systems and stated, “All those who are active in the economic system of the country should come to the realization with the timely monitoring and action of the central bank, there is no basis for any violation in this system”.

He stressed that the central bank should act decisively and without compromise in relation to banking violations, and stated, “The quick and decisive action of the central bank violations committee against the violators is a great service to the country and the banking system, because it will prevent the offense from becoming a crime”.

The President described the central bank as the eye of the banking and monetary system of the country and said, “Today, the salvation of the country lies in production and the implementation of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution’s emphasis regarding supporting production saves Iran’s economy”.

Dr Raisi further called “resolving the problem of working capital of production units” as an important action of the central bank, and added, “Part of the reason for the closure of production units is the problem of working capital, which if solved, will lead to an increase in production and employment”.

The President also urged the Governor of the Central Bank to use his efforts so that the principles of Islamic banking are implemented carefully and with full supervision in banking contracts.

The President emphasized “special attention to the sovereignty of the Rial” and said, “We must avoid dollarization of the economy because the influence of the dollar on the economy has had harmful consequences in the country”.

Raisi also emphasized the necessity of reforming the country’s currency basket and using different currencies, especially in exchanges with neighboring countries and bilateral monetary agreements, and said, “This measure can help the stable supply of goods and increase exchanges and protect the country against the shocks of the dollar”.

Ayatollah Raisi obliged the Central Bank to provide the possibility of various types of collateral to obtain loans, including the collateralization of valid financial deeds and the difference in the value of gold and machinery collateral.

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Following the motto of the new year which is “knowledge-based and job-creating production”, the mentioned package includes policies and strategies that are mainly focused on directing the country’s banks toward productive sectors including knowledge-based production.

Reforming the banking system, promoting financial discipline, diversification of financing methods, improving the quality of credit institutions’ interactions with the people, facilitating the access of production units to banking resources, and strengthening self-regulatory and supervisory structures in the banking network is also among the major goals of the said package.

All the country’s government-owned banks have been notified by the ministry about the new policies and strategies for the banking sector.

Based on the mentioned package, banks are prohibited from investing in financial markets like foreign currencies, gold, coins, and real estate.

This means that the country’s banking system shall refrain from any activities including the purchase of land, and construction of commercial, office, residential, or shopping complexes in ways other than acquisitions with the aim of liquidating the facilities granted to the owners.

The package also emphasizes that in order to make optimal use of allocated resources and to manage resources and expenditures and direct bank facilities towards profitable and value-added activities, credit institutions are obliged to implement appropriate procedures in such a way that at the end of each year, the ratio of the balance of the granted facilities to the balance of the deposits (after deducting legal deposits) should be at least 80 percent.

Unfortunately, banking regulations in Iran have not been amended since [Iranian calendar year] 1362 (March 1983-1984), therefore experts and those active in the economic sectors believe that there are currently some ambiguities in the banking system, so its reform and amendment is very vital and important.

Back in 2019, former Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand had announced that a plan for reforming the country’s banking system was prepared by the ministry, however, the plan was not implemented properly.

The post Economy Ministry unveils new policy package to reform banking system appeared first on Iran News Daily.

“During the past three months [since the appointment of Hemmati as CBI governor], all the required programs to amend banking system have been planned relying on ratifications of the Supreme Council for Economic Coordination and formation of Liquidity and Money Market Committee consisting of economy, monetary and banking experts besides central bank officials,” he announced.

Despite what some critics believe, CBI’s efforts to curb the rampant foreign exchange market during the past months, has not prevented it from focusing on its other responsibilities, he added.

“Tackling the old accumulated problems in banking system is a time-consuming procedure that requires high precision,” he underlined.

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