Majid Karimi-Rizi, head of the National Financing Centre, argued that boosting production depends on investment and that conventional methods of credit provision are no longer sufficient. He pointed to the passage of the Production and Infrastructure Financing Act and the establishment of both a National Financing Council and the National Financing Centre as institutional milestones. These bodies, he said, are tasked with strengthening credit assessment, expanding non-governmental guarantee funds, launching a comprehensive collateral registry and introducing innovative financing models. By broadening the range of acceptable collateral, currently 35 asset types, the authorities hope to ease the burden on firms seeking loans, issuing Islamic bonds or accessing other financial services. A national investment information platform, meanwhile, is expected to showcase Gilan’s investment potential in international languages.

The second half of the conference focused on specific instruments. Fatemeh Labafi Friz, deputy head of the Centre, outlined the mechanics of Islamic bonds, stressing their distinction from bank loans: the principal is repaid at maturity rather than through instalments. She highlighted two products gaining traction among businesses. Short-term murabaha bonds, capped at 20bn tomans with maturities of 18 months, can be privately placed without bank guarantees. Parallel standard salam bonds, essentially forward sales of goods, provide producers with upfront financing.

Labafi also promoted the “project company” model, allowing firms still under construction to enter the capital market as public joint-stock entities. This approach mobilizes household savings to complete unfinished projects. Complementing it is the “project fund”, designed to pool small investors’ contributions and founders’ non-cash assets to finance new ventures.

Farzaneh Abbasi, head of the Centre’s corporate and retail financing division, presented factoring as another tool. Defined simply as converting future receivables into present cash, factoring is slated for rollout in the private sector in autumn 2025. The central bank has authorized banks nationwide to handle contractual receivables worth up to 500 trillion rials, a capacity Abbasi urged Gilan’s lenders to exploit.