55% growth in the number of ATMs

In the last four years, 15 thousand ATMs have been added to Iran’s banking system: “Prior to the 11th Government, a total of 27 thousand ATMs were active across the country. However, this number has currently reached 42 thousand units”, said The Deputy of Banking and Insurance at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, Hossein Ghazavi.

Mr. Ghazavi described the speed in development in the banking industry and electronic banking as remarkable. During sanctions, Iran faced many limitations in developing banking systems. Before the sanctions, ATM giants such as NCR, Nixdorf and Diebold (which have now merged), and Mitsubishi were active in Iran.

During sanctions, Iranian companies proceeded to manufacture ATMs and POS systems domestically. Ghazavi adds that a large portion of the software currently used in the Iranian banking system has been developed with domestic technical knowledge.

But import from China continues. In 2015, Iran spent 18.2 million dollars on importing ATMs, most of which were imported from China.

Tehran Bank introduced ATMs to the Iranian banking system; the first ATM entered Iran in 1971. Nine years later, after the Islamic Revolution, Tehran bank was merged with nine other banks and formed Mellat Bank.

In spite of this, a marginal distance can be observed between the Iranian banking system and international systems, where the Central Bank is seeking to close the gap. For example, Iranian banking cards still use magnetic strips, which has various disadvantages respect to chip cards.