Financial Tribune - Bankers prefer the Central Bank of Iran take charge of a long-awaited plan for reforming the outdated banking sector. The call was made in a recent letter to Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani following ratification of the “Comprehensive Islamic Banking Bill” in earlier this month.

Kourosh Parvizian, head of Private Banks and Credit Institutions Association in a talk with ILNA expressed the concern of bankers regarding flaws in the CIBB. “This is a unilateral measure because the views of banking experts have not been included in the bill,” he complained.

"We have asked the Majlis speaker to allow Islamic banking laws to be drafted by the CBI, reviewed by the Cabinet and finally debated in the Majlis. This is a [logical] procedure experts in the banking industry want,” he said.

The CIBB is an umbrella term that includes three sets of banking regulations, namely Islamic Banking Bill, Central Bank of Iran Bill and an initiative to establish the Islamic Republic of Iran Development Bank. The package also outlines a scheme for rewriting the decades-old banking laws seen as a hindrance to decent and sustainable growth.

The senior banker added that the move is expected to help not hinder the banking sector saddled with more than its fair share of problems, in particular bad debts, NPLs and the inability and unwillingness of banks to lend.