The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has said that the total balance sheet of the banks operating in the country grew by more than a quarter year-on-year in late August to reach more than $188 billion.
The CBI issued its monthly analysis of the situation of banks in Iran on Sunday, saying that balance sheets related to deposits in the banks had reached a total of 22,630.7 trillion rials (just over $188.583 billion) on August 22, 2019.
It said the figure represented an increase of 4,869.3 trillion rials (more than $40.5 billion), or 27.4 point in percentage terms, compared to late August 2018, adding that it was 9.5 percent more that figures reported at the end of the last Iranian calendar year in late March this year.
The CBI said more than half of the money, nearly $102 billion, was held in banks in the province of Tehran, where the capital city is located, adding that the lowest balance sheet, just more than $0.5 billion, had been recorded for the bank branches in the small province of Kohgiluyeh Buyer-Ahmad, located south of Iran.
The report said a main reason for the huge concentration of the capital in one province was the fact that many companies and enterprises that operated across Iran had their headquarters or financial representatives based in Tehran.
It said loans balance sheet of the Iranian banks also rose by 20.2 percent year-on-year in late August 2019 compared to the previous year to reach a total of 16,089.3 trillion rials ($134.07 billion).
The CBI said banks in the province of Tehran topped the list of lenders with a balance of 10,308.6 trillion rials (nearly $86 billion) reported on the same date.