Iran's Central Bank Says It Is Ready to Link Payment Networks With Trading Partners

Vahid Majed, the Central Bank of Iran's deputy for monetary policy, said at a Eurasia roundtable on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Thailand that Iran was ready to explore linking its payment networks to those of trading partners. The report was published Thursday, 23 Mehr 1405 (October 15, 2026), citing the central bank. He also referred to Iran's earlier proposal for a Eurasian financial corridor and its trial of a digital rial.

Citing publicly available central bank data, Majed said more than 4.8 billion electronic transactions took place on Iran's card-payment network in Shahrivar 1405. This is a statement of readiness and talks: no new agreement with a named country or launch date for a shared network was announced. The subject matters to Iran's cross-border trade payments, but any practical impact depends on agreements and implementation.