Jalal Rasoulof, Managing Director of Bank Keshavarzi

Ranking the top 1,000 world banks is published annually by The Banker, an authentic magazine, which is issued by the Financial Times Institute. This grading is carried out on the basis of tier one capital as defined by the Basel-based Bank for International Settlement.

The tier one capital, which is more limited compared to shareholders’ rights, includes such items as ordinary shares, declared stocks as well as undistributed profits and other components of the shareholders’ rights such as subordinated shares, stocks resulting from reassessment of assets, undeclared stocks, subordinated debts and other long-term debts.

The grading aims to reflect degree of bank healthiness on the basis of regulations of Basel Committee for ratio of capital to high-risk assets.

The grading is published in July edition of Banker every year. According to this year’s grading in which Bank Keshavarzi entered for the first time, the bank appeared in 212th place. This is the highest rank ever achieved by an Iranian bank.

Among 55 banks from various countries, which entered the list for the first time in 2002, Bank Keshavarzi is considered as the largest of the new entries.

Some 86 Middle Eastern banks have been put on the list of top 1,000 world banks with the names of 25 banks being registered as the top Middle Eastern banks in a separate list. Bank Keshavarzi ranks ninth in the list, which is again, the highest rank ever achieved by an Iranian bank. So, the status of the Iranian banks in the list has remarkably improved.

From the viewpoint of country ranking, out of seven Iranian banks on the list, six other Iranian banks ranked from 260 to 435.

It must be noted that in addition to tier one capital, which is the main basis for listing top world banks, the banks are also graded in terms of volume of assets, ratio of capital to assets, actual profit growth, ratio of profit to capital, output of assets and the cost-revenue ratio.

Bank Keshavarzi has made this achievement while:

1. It has recently joined the comprehensive banking network.

2. The interest rate of agriculture sector’s facilities, which make up about 94% of the banks’ payments, is the lowest rate among other economic sectors.

3. During the said year, a great part of bank claims were extended based on the law for extending repayment of claims by drought victims, while the relevant resources used for payment of new facilities and generation of more revenues were no longer accessible for the bank.

4. It accounted for the highest share of obligatory payments out of total payments of the banking system.

This achievement is, in the first place, an outcome of providence and then indebted to people’s participation and the bank’s clients who considered Bank Keshavarzi as their own and spared nothing to support it. The efforts made by bank employees in various parts of the country and the support of officials including the Islamic Consultative Assembly must not be ignored.