Type Public Website www.edbi.ir Headquarters Tehran | Area served Worldwide Founded 1991 | |
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Native name Persian: بانک توسعه صادرات ایران Industry Banking, Financial services, Export, Import Products Export credit agency, Consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, wealth management, credit cards, | ||
Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) (Persian: بانک توسعه صادرات ايران) is Iran's Export-Import Bank. The Bank was incorporated as a policy bank, owned by the Iranian government, and provides financial and other banking services to exporters and investors. EDBI also is the international representative for the Islamic Development Bank.
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History
Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) was established on July 10, 1991, by an Act of the Islamic Consultative Assembly and subsequently initiated its activities in September 1992. In a 2011 interview, the Chairman and Managing Director of EDBI, Dr. Kourush Parvizian said, "At the very beginning, the initial capital of the bank was financed by the local banks in Iran, and afterwards the government injected further capital into EDBI." In December 2015, EDBI joined the Association of Developed Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific.
International sanctions and lifting
In 2008, the US Treasury Department labelled EDBI as a proliferator "pursuant to Executive Order 13382 for providing or attempting to provide financial services to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL)." As per the Spokesperson for the United States Department of State, the support by EDBI to MODAFL and its related institutions "permitted these entities to advance Iran’s weapons of mass destruction programs." Post this, EDBI had to stop its financing activities as its parent organization, Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was taken off the SWIFT network.
In 2010, the European Union also placed sanctions on EDBI. In 2013, the Iranian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance announced that it was in the process of claiming damages from the European Union post the EU's ruling to levy sanctions on the bank. In January 2016, the international sanctions on EDBI were lifted, after which EDBI resumed ties with multiple institutions across the world.