The interesting thing with banking in Iran is, that we have on the one side a market completely excluded and cut from the rest of the world, but on the other side knowing whats going on in the world and also having the same capabilities for development or demand.
Fertile grounds
In Iran the situation is in a certain way much better than in Europe. Neither is the whole system of payments to that extend elaborated, nor is there a connection to the outside. So the need is much more given as in a good equipped societies like Germany. And you can feel it mucxh more directly. The typical topics are micropayments which enable people to be liquid without credit cards or any bank account. This apps are like bahamata somehow a little bit a Paypal clone, but it works and people using it more and more. And that helps apps like Zpay to become the middleman between Iran and rest of world by bringing the card to the phone and the payment process in a world without sanctions.
Regulator as driver
And there is also the government that wants to come out of the mucky corner and postulates the target for Tehran as the fintech hub in middleast. That gives the interesting situation, that the government and the central bank itself are supporting the market in terms of an technical accelerator or business angel.
And this governmental driving factor all over is the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), sorting things, speaking out ideas and supporting new start-ups and thus getting familiar with the new banking world. Also its easier to bring the Fintechs to obey the rules, CBI has established. This rules allow Fintechs as long as they do not operate in money creation, currency exchange or having own payment tools. These rules shall help the established banks in their most attractive business of cards issuer and give space for financial new comers to experiment with new ideas as long as the big banks do not have such ideas…
Fintech awards grow ideas
The First Fintech Festival which is hosted by Bank Pasargad has created some good ground for start ups. Target areas of interest are of course the core-banking, but also business intelligence, data mining, customer loyalty and digital currencies. Sizzling idea of this 3-day event is, that bank experts are around to help the fintechs to develop and market their innovative ideas. And all that in a 54-hour marathon.
Stay tuned
Yours K-Street6 Team