Bank Melli Iran
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The first national Iranian bank, established by parliament in 1928 and still state-owned today. Until 1960, it served as the country’s central bank, printing and distributing rials. A pioneer in international banking from Iran – it opened in Hamburg in 1965 and still has 16 branches and subsidiary banks internationally – it is today the biggest bank in Iran, employing over 43,000 people in 3,300 branches across the country. Although not at any international level of transparency and efficiency – the most recent annual report available on its English-language web site is from 2008/09 – the bank is more than just a big state institution, with a large share of the country’s private-sector deposits alongside the government banking, project and trade finance work.
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