IRGC’s Penetration of the Seductive Banking World

BANK ANSAR: AN EXAMPLE OF THE IRGC'S PENETRATION OF THE BANKING WORLD

This report discusses the IRGC’s penetration of the seductive banking world, by which it aspires to achieve increasing control of the Iranian business sector. Since late 2008, in glaring contrast with the global trend of closing and nationalizing banks as a result of the international economic crisis, the number of private banks in Iran increased drastically from six to thirteen. Some of these were financial bodies that did not start off as banks, including the IRGC’s bank Ansar and the Iranian post bank, which bypassed normal procedure to receive fast-track approval to become fully-functioning banks.

The Iranian regime, meanwhile, has been trying to privatize state-owned banks, with mixed success. Its efforts are ostensibly aimed at strengthening Iranian banking. The regime's main goals are to make Iran’s banking sector more efficient, to fill in the gaps created by the sanctions and cope with them, and to make the imposition of further sanctions problematic, given that it is more difficult to impose sanctions on private bodies than on bodies identified with the Iranian regime.

In September 2009, it was reported that Iran’s money and credit council had approved the transformation of the Ansar financial establishment or Ansar foundation, identified with the IRGC and the Iranian police force, from a non-profit credit company into a fully- functioning bank, and that it :would shortly begin operating as such.

Many of the people employed by the IRGC receive their salaries via this bank, which has many branches in IRGC bases, including in bases managed by the IRGC’s SSM unit.

The IRGC is not Ansar's only customer, but many IRGC men have accounts there and use the bank to carry out various financial transactions. the banking world is a branch of the economy that presents many and varied opportunities, and there is no doubt that the control the IRGC has gained over this sector is not accidental: it is the result of careful planning, and stems from an understanding of the significant potential this sector holds, including, as mentioned above, the ability to channel funds effectively according to IRGC requirements and to cope successfully with sanctions. All that remains is to wonder which sector the IRGC intends to gain control of next.

The question is which interest will take precedence: the country's interest in developing its economy, or the IRGC’s interest in strengthening its grip over the country, including its economy. clearly, the IRGC 's control over a financial organization will deter businessmen from doing business with such an organization, since businessmen are aware that the IRGC has been identified internationally as being subject to sanctions, and they know that anyone connected with it any way is likely sooner or later to be similarly sanctioned.

We do not expect the answer to this question to be long in coming, given the accelerated rate at which the IRGC has been taking control of one sector of the Iranian economy after another. As mentioned in previous reports, the IRGC’s tentacles are reaching out ever further. All that remains is to see where they are headed next.