24 Nov 2024
Sunday 8 May 2016 - 17:18
Story Code : 212998

Will 'free financial center' lure foreign banks to Iran?

TEHRAN, Iran Iranian authorities are weighing whether to launch a free financial center, most probably in one of the countrys free trade zones, to encourage capital inflow into the economy.

Planning is underway to turn free trade zones into foreign investment hubs through the opening of branch offices for Tehrans equity and bond markets, setting up offshore banks and establishing a free financial center, said Akbar Torkan, secretary of the Supreme Council of Irans Free Trade, Industrial and Special Economic Zones, in March at a meeting with Expediency Council leader Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on the Persian Gulf island of Kish.

Torkans comments came days after he reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Organization, Iran's capital market regulator, to launch the financial center. Of note, he had said in November that the Kish free trade zone would be a suitable place to set up such a center.
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This article was written by Alireza Ramezani for Al-Monitor on May 6, 2016. Alireza Ramezani earned a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University in theUK.
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