Central Bank's National ID Card FX Policy Narrows the Official to Free Market Gap to 8,000 Tomans

Iran's central bank has narrowed the gap between the official banking network rate and the free market rate by rolling out a new policy that allocates up to 1,000 dollars in banknotes per applicant, at the market premium rate, through the national ID card system. According to Ecoiran, citing Tabnak, the official rate stood at 198,000 tomans per dollar in Saturday, 7 Shahrivar 1405 (August 29, 2026) trading, about 8,000 tomans below the free market rate of near 206,000 tomans the same day. Official data show that of a 500 million dollar allocation the central bank made available between Tuesday, 3 Shahrivar and Thursday, 5 Shahrivar, applicants absorbed only 20 million dollars, which the report says indicates the earlier queues were largely speculative. The central bank governor has said the bank will keep supplying currency at the market's negotiated rate to meet genuine demand. Separately, the buy rate for dollar transfers on Iran's Currency Exchange Center rose 437 tomans to 157,053 tomans.