Iran Halts Private Lender Permits After Crisis Fueled Protests
- Move comes amid tremors in a parallel financial industry
- Rouhani addresses crisis in first major address since protests
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Iran’s central bank has ceased issuing permits and licenses for new private banks or commercial lenders, after the collapse of several major institutions froze the savings of hundreds of thousands of depositors and helped fuel anti-government protests.
Leading commercial banks and so-called credit institutions or funds -- whose high interest rates allowed them to expand rapidly over the past 15 years -- have shut or received government bailouts, and the crisis first sparked protests in the middle of last year. The lenders were again a focus of anger as demonstrations swept through Iranian cities from late December in the biggest challenge to Iran’s clerical system in nearly a decade.