In the last weeks we have been really busy with all the new and existing ventures and by the way its no easy to establish a Iranian company as solid commodity provider in Germany with all this reservations. The people extrapolate the last yeas experience into expectations of the future. Thus it makes it very difficult to create a atmosphere of trust and cooperation. Even more I was really happy to see, that some real good movements are ongoing towards Iran. This I would like to share with you today.
Banking Island
The first good thing is, that Iran plans to create a special business district on Qeshm. Following the archetype of Chinas Hong Kong or Shenzen this gives enormous potential for the country. Rumor says it is planned solely as financial centre and it should act as hub for foreign banks. Sitting on this island in the street of Hormuz could be the needed advantage to circumvent restrictions on its own banks’ ability to raise international capital.
The population lays today by around 120.000 people, mostly fishing industry and tourism. It will be very interesting to see, how this move changes the whole society there and jump starts the evolution of the population. As always within Iranian projects, a drop of bitterness is also here to see. Since 5 years, the government tries to build a bridge between the island and the mainland.
Short note: economy growths
But good news, IMF, the International Monetary Fund expects Iran’s economy to expand 4% in the 12 months to March 2017.
Swiss banking software goes Iran
The second good news is right now not more than rumor. It was reported that Swiss software company Temenos will install for the first time its banking suite to Iran. Reportedly the bank Ayandeh will be the first client in Iran. And as I know by heart, it is more than necessary to improve the software used in these banks since ages. To be fair, not all software is outdated, as some have SAP running and of course the Office family is represented heavily, but the core banking systems have to be adapted to modern standards. Talking about getting back to normality for banks is not only the question of capitalization and liquidity combined with the problems of the current level of interest to be answered. Even more for banks it is crucial to adapt to modern standards in bank management as well as bank reporting like the T2S or other by doing business with Europe standards like CRS. So we are looking forward today with much more trust and positive outlook!
Stay tuned
Yours K-Street6 team