Tehran, Iran, March.11
Trend:
The head Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran (SEO) announced that the permission to transfer of shares of individuals who are shareholders of the merged banks in Sepah Bank was received from the Supreme National Security Council.
“The shares will be transferred at the maximum nominal price, and shareholders can also transfer their shares to licensed entities,” Shapour Mohammadi said, Trend reports citing ILNA.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has earlier approved a decree to merge the military-related banks in the country. The five entities to be merged into Bank Sepah are: Bank Ansar, Bank Qavamin, Bank Hekmat Iranian, Bank Mehr Eqtesad and Kowsar Credit Institute.
Many Iranian banks are under pressure because of years of poor management and economic difficulties, caused by decades of international sanctions and the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions last year.
The advocates of merging believe one of the current challenges of the banking system is banks' low capital and the problem would be reduced by merging banks, and help save costs as well, reduce service fees, number of branches and the managers of banks.
Those in Iran who oppose the merger, think that merging banks into one bank would cause more problems than before, as Sepah Bank would be dealing with more losses than before.