With Iran’s media coverage dominated by nuclear sanctions, trade embargoes and political wrangling, the recent boom in the country's retail banking market has gone largely unnoticed. But given the proliferation of new banks over the past few years, Iran’s retail banking sector has become increasingly competitive and is now reaching saturation point. In 2007 there were 15 banks with retail operations, by 2011 this figure reached 27. Competition is intensified further by the existence of about 45 credit institutions.
Amid shrinking profit margins, banks are trying to find new ways of generating revenue and investment banking is proving increasingly popular, given the government’s concerted effort to speed up privatisation. The Iranian Privatisation Organisation (IPO) divested $80bn-worth of government-owned assets in 155 companies between 2005 and March 20, 2011.
