The Top 25 country ranking of the Top 500 Islamic institutions clearly demonstrates that Iran, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia are by far the three largest countries providing Islamic finance, with Iran’s total amounting to $154.6bn of sharia-compliant assets (SCAs) accounting for 30.9% of the global aggregate total of $500.5bn.

Foreign banks are finding that the lure of Iran’s large population, oil-rich heritage and privatisation opportunities may outweigh the risks, writes Karina Robinson from Tehran.

Karina Robinson talks to Iran’s central bank governor Ebrahim Sheibany, about inflation, privatisation and the UN’s freezing of Iranian assets.

Iranian minister of economics affairs and finance Davood Danesh Jafari talks to Stephen Timewell about his country’s privatisation drive, which will see some of its state-owned enterprises offered to the private sector.

With Iran’s new president laying down the law on interest rates as well as hiring and firing the heads of many state banks, the sector is bracing itself for a stormy period. Gareth Smyth and Najmeh Bozorgmehr report from Tehran.

Initial reticence about the election of Iran’s new hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, has turned to optimism in the financial sector. Gareth Smyth and Najmeh Bozorgmehr report from Tehran.