Financial Tribune - The Central Bank of Iran on Thursday said lenders can raise the ceiling when issuing certificate of deposit up to a level that doesn’t cross 20% of total long-term deposits at the end of last fiscal year (March 19).

It allowed banks to issue CDs at 18% interest. The decision will be valid until Sept 22, according to a notice on the CBI website.

The move comes after private banks announced in April that they would set the interest on term deposits at 15%. Before that they had leeway to raise rates up to 18%.

Banks also decided to lower interest rates for short-term deposits to 8% down from 10%.