[IsraelTimes] Move to reform the country’s banking system and financial markets comes as Tehran seeks to ease economic crisis.Iran’s official IRNA news agency said Saturday the country’s Central Bank has merged four banks and a credit union to reform the country’s banking system and financial markets.
The report announced the merger of Ansar, Mehr-e Eghtesad, affiliated with powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Ghavvamin, affiliated with the police, Hekmat-e Iranian Bank and the Kosar Credit Institute, affiliated with the defense ministry, with Bank Sepah, Iran’s first bank that is also affiliated with the army.
Bank Sepah has 1800 branches in Iran and others in Britannia, La Belle France, Germany and Italia. The United States imposed sanctions on Bank Sepah in November after it withdrew from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran is in the grip of an economic crisis and has seen sporadic protests in recent months as officials try to downplay the effects of the restored US sanctions on Tehran.