Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran

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Bank Markazi, Tehran, Iran
Bank Markazi, Tehran, Iran


The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Persian: بانک مرکزی جمهوری اسلامی ايران‎, Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran) is the central bank of Iran.

Contents

[edit] History

20,000 Iranian rials produced by Bank Markazi
20,000 Iranian rials produced by Bank Markazi

The Ilkhanate were one of the rulers of Iran that tried to introduce paper currency in Iran in the late 13th century, without success.[1]

In modern banking, the British first opened the Imperial Bank of Persia in 1889, with offices in all major cities of Persia, including India. To compete with the bank of Britain, Imperial Russia also opened the Russian Loan and Development Bank.[2]

The Central Bank of Iran is state-owned and was established in 1927 by Reza Shah [3]with the primary objective to maintain the value of Iran's national currency (rial and toman).

Though Iran is now an Islamic Republic, the monarchy having been overthrown in 1979, the Imperial Crown Jewels are still on display in the vaults of the Central Bank in Tehran, and are one of the most appealing tourist attractions in Iran. So valuable are the Iranian Crown Jewels that they back the Iranian currency as a reserve, along with gold and a basket of hard currencies.

[edit] Governors of the Central Bank of Iran[4]

Governor Date
Ebrahim Kashani 1960
Ali Asghar Poor Homayoon 1961
Mahdi Samii 1964
Khodadad Farmanfarmayan 1969
Mahdi Samii 1970
Abdolali Jahanshahi 1971
Mohammad Yeganeh 1973
Hassan-Ali Mehran 1975
Yoosef Khoshkish 1978
Mohammad Ali Molavi 1979
Alireza Nobari 1979
Mohsen Nourbakhsh 1981
Majid Ghasemi 1986
Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli 1989
Mohsen Nourbakhsh 1994
Mohammad Javad Vahhaji (acting) 2003
Ebrahim Sheibani 2003

[edit] Objectives

500 Iranian rials
500 Iranian rials

The objectives of the Iranian Central Bank as per its charter are as follows:

[edit] Islamic banking

All banks in Iran must follow the banking principles and practices described in the Islamic Banking law of Iran passed in 1983 by the Islamic Majlis of Iran [5]. According to this law, banks can only engage in interest-free Islamic transactions (interest is considered as usury or riba and is forbidden by Islam and the holy book of Quran). These are commercial transactions that involve exchange of goods and services in return for a share of the assumed "profit". All such transactions are performed through Islamic contracts, such as Mozarebe, Foroush Aghsati, Joale, Salaf, and Gharzol-hassane. Details of these contracts and related practices are outlined in the Iranian Interest-Free banking law and its guidelines.

[edit] Statistics

Reserves of foreign exchange & gold: $40.06 billion (2005 est.)

Exchange rates: rials per US dollar - 9,246.94 (2006), 8,964 (2005), 8,885 (2004), 8,193.89 (2003)

note: Iran has been using a managed floating exchange rate regime since unifying multiple exchange rates in March 2002.
Pre-unification, rials per US dollar:
Market: 8,200 (2002), 8,050 (2001), 8,350 (2000)[6]
Official: 6,906.96 (2002), 1,753.56 (2001), 1,764.43 (2000)[7]

The International Monetary Fund reports that in 2001, currency and demand deposits—an aggregate commonly known as M1—were equal to $71.7 billion. In that same year, M2—an aggregate equal to M1 plus savings deposits, small time deposits, and money market mutual funds—was $153.6 billion.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave. 2005. Coauthored with Michael Rubin. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.168
  2. ^ Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave. 2005. Coauthored with Michael Rubin. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.41
  3. ^ Patrick Clawson. Eternal Iran. Palgrave. 2005. Coauthored with Michael Rubin. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6 p.55
  4. ^ http://www.cbi.ir/page/1570.aspx
  5. ^ Iran's interest-free banking law. Central Bank of Iran.
  6. ^ http://www.farsinet.com/toman/exchange.html
  7. ^ CIA factbook

[edit] See also

[edit] Links

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