Bank Mellat (Vabmellat, وبملت) has announced the payment schedule for its cash dividend for the fiscal year ended March 20, 2026 (29 Esfand 1404), splitting it into four separate stages. Under the notice, the first group to be paid is individual shareholders not registered with Iran's centralized shareholder registry, SEJAM, who are paid starting June 5, 2026, while SEJAM-registered shareholders, who normally receive dividends earlier and automatically, must wait until August 1, 2026 this time.
Background
Bank Mellat has been one of the most closely watched Tehran Stock Exchange tickers on the financial reporting front in recent months. Sahmino previously reported that the bank's registered capital rose across four stages from December 2023 to May 2026, from 35.3 to 338.2 trillion tomans, an increase that led its six month fiscal 1404 earnings per share to be reported as two conflicting figures, 656 rials and 335 rials. The annual dividend payment schedule now follows from the same general assembly that finalized the bank's fiscal 1404 financial statements. For comparison, in last year's payment cycle (fiscal year 1403), Bank Mellat approved a cash dividend of 82 rials per share, and payment to SEJAM-registered shareholders began on July 26, 2025; this year's SEJAM payment falls in roughly the same calendar window, but this time noticeably later than every other shareholder group.
The Numbers
Per the bank's notice (July 2026), the payment schedule for Vabmellat shareholders is as follows:
| Shareholder group | Payment start date | Method |
|---|
| Individual shareholders without SEJAM | June 5, 2026 | Bank Mellat branches or the bank's designated system |
| Investment portfolios and funds | July 6, 2026 | Documents submitted to the shares department |
| SEJAM-registered individual and corporate shareholders | August 1, 2026 | Direct bank account deposit |
| Other corporate shareholders without SEJAM | August 21, 2026 | Documents submitted to the shares department |
Drivers
The reversed order, relative to common assumption, traces back to the sheer scale and complexity of Bank Mellat's shareholder base. SEJAM is the automatic, preferred channel for dividend payment, but when a major bank's SEJAM-registered shareholder base runs into the millions of national ID codes, reconciling each shareholder's bank account details against the SEJAM registry and routing the batch deposit through the Central Securities Depository takes longer to process. By contrast, a non-SEJAM individual shareholder who visits a branch in person with a national ID card follows a shorter, manual path that does not depend on centralized system verification. Corporate shareholders, whether SEJAM-registered or not, must submit identity documents and an IBAN, which lengthens the process further.
Outlook
From a fundamentals standpoint, this notice on its own has no bearing on Vabmellat's intrinsic value, since it only sets the execution timeline for the assembly's resolution rather than disclosing any new profitability figure. From a liquidity and financial planning standpoint for retail shareholders, however, it has a direct effect: receiving the dividend two to three months later for SEJAM-registered shareholders means delayed access to that cash, whereas on many other Tehran Stock Exchange tickers the sequence runs the other way, with SEJAM shareholders paid earliest. For Vabmellat shareholders, the practical takeaway is that SEJAM registration does not mean earlier payment in this particular cycle; each shareholder should go by the date set for their own group rather than the general assumption that "SEJAM shareholders get paid first."
What to Watch
Vabmellat shareholders should verify their SEJAM registration status and the accuracy of their registered IBAN ahead of each of the four deadlines. Also worth tracking in the coming weeks: the official publication of the assembly's minutes on Codal, Iran's corporate disclosure system, including the final approved cash dividend per share for fiscal year 1404, and any subsequent amendment to this schedule.
