Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 14 / Trend F.Mehdi/
A member of the board of directors of the Melli Bank of Iran has said the bank's debt to the Central Bank has sharply reduced, ISNA reported.
The bank's outstanding claims have also been reduced within the past month, Abbas Kamarei stated.
Meanwhile, the bank is continuing to fund semi-finished projects, he noted.
In December 2012, the Fars News Agency quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Iran's main financial problem is the banking system's outstanding bad loans.
"Some 300 individuals hold 60 per cent of the nation's total money," he said, but added that "there is no financial shortage in the country."
The Khabar Online website has brought up the Iranian Central Bank's statistics reporting in November that government's debt to the banking system has seen a sharp increase for the last three years, as the amount reached $38,3 billion (by the official USD rate in Iran) of the previously mentioned $57 billion.
Khabar online reported that since June 2008 to June 2009, the government's debt has risen by $5 billion and later somewhere in 2011-2012 it had already increased by $12 billion.
Other 'inside problems' include the willingness of Iranian banks to grant long term loans from short term deposits and inability to monitor and manage the given loans on the previous year transaction archives.
Speaking of the factors that affect Iran's banking system from the outside, a major one is the impact of international sanctions on Iran's economy and banking sector.
Minor Iranian banks are also in debt to Iran's Central Bank which reached 370 trillion rials (some $30 billion) in the first quarter of the past calendar year.
Debts of commercial and specialised banks amounted to 136 trillion rials and 239 trillion rials, respectively.
The total debts of banks to the central bank hit 168 trillion rials, 231 trillion rials and 135 trillion rials respectively three to five years ago.