Afghan Central Bank: Deposits safe in closed Iranian bank

Officials in the Afghan Central Bank (Da Afghanistan Bank) on Tuesday announced that the public deposits in the Kabul branch of the Iranian Aryan Bank is secure despite the license of the named bank was cancelled by the Iranian government.

Concerns sparked among the Afghans after a member of the Money and Credit Council on Monday announced that the Iranian government has cancelled the license of Aryan Electronic Bank.

This comes as recent reports suggested the cancellation of Standard Chartered Bank sparked tensions among those Afghans who have deposits in this bank.

Khan Afzal Hadawal Deputy of the Afghan Central Bank on Tuesday called the concerns over the Aryan Bank as baseless and said all the deposits are safe taking into consideration all the insurance principals of the banks in Afghanistan.

He said, we have created a system known as deposit insurance which will help to overcome any issues that a bank faces in Afghanistan adding that we are monitoring all the financial institutions in Afghanistan, and all the deposits of the Afghans are safe and will be transferred to another bank.

However a number of financial experts are doubtful over the capability of the Afghan government to implement the regulations of the banking insurance in the country.

Aryan Bank was recently licensed by the Central Bank of Iran and had not formally launched its operations. It is worth mentioning that the Aryan Bank is separate from the Bank-e-Aryan.

Aryan Bank was formed with the initial capital of $10 million around 7 years ago in Afghanistan. The export bank of Iran in its website stated that they are the owners of the Aryan Bank.

Source: SouthAsia.Net