TEHRAN, April 26 (Xinhua) -- The number of Iranian banks shrank in the previous quarter ending on March 20, as mobile banking gained momentum, local media reported Thursday.
The total number of bank branches in the Islamic republic reached 20,723 in the last quarter of the previous Iranian calender year ending on March 20, registering a 0.3 percent decrease, the Financial Tribune daily reported.
Iran's Central Bank has ceased issuing permits for new private banks or commercial lenders.
Iranian banks are looking for ways to cut costs, including encouraging customers to embrace mobile banking instead of conducting transactions at a physical branch,
In January, President Hassan Rouhani said he had instructed the central bank not to issue permits to any new private banks.
The International Monetary Fund said in a report last year that the credit institutions as well as Iranian banks, which had been weakened by years of sanctions and competition from unlicensed financial institutions, were in need of "urgent restructuring and recapitalization."
