In a circular, the central bank notified the bank network of instructions regarding commercial deposit accounts and related banking services for implementation, according to which all bank deposit accounts of legal entities are considered commercial accounts.
According to this circular, in order to prepare the necessary conditions for the implementation of the laws and regulations governing the separation of commercial and non-commercial accounts, various measures have been put on the agenda of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the country’s tax affairs organization.
For this purpose, systems have been prepared and web services for the exchange of information between the Central Bank and the country’s tax affairs organization, as well as between the Central Bank and the country’s banking network, so that the aforementioned process can be carried out with maximum ease and speed.
With the preparation of the necessary infrastructure for the implementation of the above-mentioned project, it was necessary to formulate regulations to separate the bank deposit accounts of individuals into commercial and non-commercial accounts. In this regard, a regulation titled “Instructions for Supervising Commercial Deposit Accounts and Related Banking Services” was developed, which was approved by the central bank’s board of directors in the meeting of 12 September 1401, and a copy of this instruction was sent.
According to this instruction, all bank deposit accounts of legal entities are considered commercial accounts.
The bank deposit account of natural persons is a non-commercial account and it is converted into a commercial account only if one of the procedures mentioned in Article (4) of the directive is completed. Non-commercialization of commercial accounts of natural persons is possible only within the framework of the procedures mentioned in the same article.
The credit institution is only allowed to accept the request for the commercialization of the deposit account of a foreign customer who presents one of the valid activity permits including the employment permit issued by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare or the foreign investment permit subject to Article (6) of the Foreign Investment Promotion and Support Law. Current foreign customers of credit institutions that use acceptance tools have a one-year deadline to obtain the necessary permits and submit them to the credit institution.
The credit institution is not allowed to accept the new partner’s request to join the joint business account. If the applicants need to extend the partners, they should submit a request for opening a new joint account to the credit institution and go through the necessary formalities.
It is worth mentioning that the withdrawal request of each partner from the joint business account is possible after following the procedures mentioned in Article (9) of the instructions.
Controls have been considered in the mentioned instructions and in relation to banking services related to the business of individuals. Therefore, any provision of banking services for the provision of currency related to the import of goods and services depends on the existence of a commercial account in the name of the import applicant. The transfer of Rial funds related to the demand for foreign exchange for the purpose of importing goods and services is also possible only from the commercial account.
Any granting of Rial and foreign currency facilities depends on the existence of a business account in the name of the applicant for the facility and the use of its funds in the business account. Unless, at the discretion of the relevant credit institution in the credit institution, granting Riyal facilities in the form of loan, installment sale, lease with the condition of ownership, Jaala and Murabahah to the customer, is used in non-commercial affairs. This applies to the issuance of any guarantee and the opening of any letter of credit.
For the owners of commercial accounts, bank incentives are considered as described in Article (16) of the directive, which the credit institution is obliged to apply, taking into account the nature and extent of commercial activity of the owners of commercial accounts.
This post is written by shadmanamini