Imperial Bank of Persia

[2] It was established in 1885 with a concession from the Persian government to Baron Julius De Reuter (born Israel Beer Josaphat) a German–Jewish banker and businessman who later became a Christian and a British subject.

"[2] As usury was forbidden under Islam, the traditional money lenders in Iran were the Jewish sarrafs, who continued to dominate the field after the Imperial Bank's arrival due to greater loan flexibility and cultural ties.

While the real reason Reuter wanted the concession was in order to develop the railroad in Persia, it also gave him monopoly over banking for sixty years.

The concession was resented by the local population, which protested that the Shah had granted all the resources of the land to a foreigner and by Russians who saw the British competing with their interest in Persia.

Due to mounting pressure, the Shah subsequently cancelled the concession in 1873, citing the fact that Reuter failed to initiate the railway project within 15 months.

Although this new concession was not as immense as the first one, it still granted him valuable control over Persian banking and mining with the energetic support of British minister, Henry Drummond Wolff.

[5] The Imperial Bank of Persia was finally established in 1889 on the basis of the 1872 concession to Baron Julius De Reuter from the Persian government (Reuter concession) which made it the state bank, with the exclusive right to issue notes and tax free status for sixty years.

The bank's first chief executive,[12] Joseph Rabino, born in London to an Italian Jewish family, was always regarded with great suspicion by his board.

[13] The bank's high level contact in Tehran was general Albert Houtum-Schindler who was, like Reuter, a British subject of German origin.

[3] In the 1930s, exchange controls and barter agreements destroyed the Imperial Bank's business in financing foreign trade.

[16] Jones argues that during the two World Wars and in the early 1920s, the bank placed British diplomatic interests before those of Iran's elites.