Four Iranian banks have signed an “unlimited finance deal” with the Eximbank of Russia in Moscow on Tuesday.
This agreement was reached two months after the Central Bank of Iran clinched an agreement with the Export Insurance Agency of Russia (EXIAR) to pave the way for Russian banks to fund Iranian projects, a statement by the CBI said on Tuesday.
Bank Sepah, the Export Development Bank of Iran, Bank Parsian and Bank Pasargad have signed a deal based on which the Russian Eximbank will provide funds “without a ceiling” to the four lenders to finance development projects in Iran.
In mid-October, CBI’s deputy for foreign exchange affairs Ahmad Araqchi had signed the finance agreement with Alexey Tyupanov, chairman of the Management Board and CEO of the Russian export credit–aka Exiar– during the Russian officials’ visit to Tehran.
Based on the recent agreement signed in Moscow, Iran’s public and private sector’s approved projects will be able to benefit from the loans, while Russian exporters can use them to export technical and engineering services to Iran, , Financial Tribune wrote.
Russia is the sixth country which has sealed finance deal with Iran in recent months.
Iran had earlier been able to seal finance deals with financial institutions from India, China, South Korea, Denmark and Austria.
In late September, Austria’s Oberbank signed a major finance deal with over a dozen Iranian banks based on which it would provide €1 billion in credits to the country’s companies that invest in the Iranian economy.
Oberbank’s initiative – that was seen in Tehran as the first of its kind in many years – was followed on the same day by a similar agreement between Denmark’s Danske Bank and several Iranian banks.
Accordingly, Danske Bank would allocate a credit line of €500 million for investments by Danish businesses in Iran.
On a related front, France’s state investment bank Bpifrance (BPI) announced also in September that it planned to provide funds to French companies that invest in the Iranian economy from next year.
BPI France CEO Nicolas Dufourcq was quoted by media as telling reporters that his bank would grant up to €500 million ($598 million) in annual credits to companies that venture into the Iranian market.
Karimi & Associates Law Firm