Azerbaijan, Baku, March 11/ Trend M. Moezzi/
A group of banks wrote to the chief of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) to protest taking of funds from some banks' accounts without any prior notice, the Jahanesanat newspaper's website reports.
The CBI's response is that it is simply taking what it is owed, the differential in the price of currency the banks have bought and the price they have sold it for.
The letter from the Iranian Private Bankers' Association to Mahmoud Bahmani points to the taking funds from the banks' accounts on March 5 and says all purchases of currency were final with the banks paying whatever price was set by the CBI.
The banks stipulate there is no differential to be collected because the currency they bought could not be sold at a rate different from the CBI's.
Shareholders will have to bear the cost of the cash taken from the banks and the amount of money taken by the CBI is so big that it will affect the banks' year-end profit reports.
In its letter, the banking association asks the central bank to return the funds it has taken.
Last week it was reported the CBI wanted $2 billion from Iran's banks, for what it called the foreign currency differential.