Overview
- Central Bank Governor Mohammad-Reza Farzin announced the closure with customers, staff and branches moving to Bank Melli starting Saturday.
- Officials pledged that savings are secure, yet long queues formed as Iran’s deposit insurance covers only about 1 billion rials (roughly $930) and payouts can take years.
- Ayandeh accumulated roughly $5.2 billion in losses and about $3 billion in debt, with a deeply negative capital position after years under special oversight.
- Investigations tied the failure to poor governance and loans to politically connected projects, including the debt-heavy Iran Mall development.
- A harsher backdrop of high inflation, a weakening rial and sanctions — with banks cut off by U.S. measures and FATF blacklisting — has renewed interest in Bitcoin as some view it as a hedge against banking and currency risk.