Iranian ministers announce plans for creating development bank

Two Iranian ministers announced the government’s intention to turn the country’s Bank Maskan into a development bank.

Speaking at an annual ordinary general assembly of Bank Maskan, Iran’s Economy Minister Masoud Karbasian said that the government attaches importance to the plan on turning Housing Bank into a development bank, Iran’s state-run IRINN Channel reported.

He added that the of¿cials in the government, Central Bank as well as Money and Credit Council will make efforts to materialize the plan.

In the meantime, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Abbas Akhoundi, said that the plan has been on the government agenda since President Hassan Rouhani took of¿ce in August 2013.

Akhoundi urged the ¿nance minister to seriously follow up the issue of turning Housing Bank into a development bank.

As part of its roadmap until the end of the second term of President Hassan Rouhani in the ¿scal 2021-22, Bank Maskan, the agent bank of the housing sector, aims to become a regional development player.

As envisioned in the roadmap document, Bank Maskan is supposed to be the leading bank in terms of offering ¿nancial services to housing and urban development as one of the main features of healthy and sustainable ¿nancing of the housing sector and transform into one of the most ef¿cient development-specialized banks in West Asia, the bank said in an announcement.