Conflict of Interest in the Imperial Bank and Its Effects on the Iranian Economy

The Imperial Bank of Persia was the most important foreign financial institution in Qajar era of Iran, which was established in 1306 AH (1889) by granting concession by Naser al-Din Shah and was active in Iran for a total of 60 years (total time of concession), so that it can be named as one of the best examples of foreign direct investment during the colonial era in Iran. However the bank was facing serious conflict of interest issues, as it was the most important commercial bank in Iran, it had the exclusive right to print banknotes, the Iranian government was one of its most important customers, it had to answer to its non-Iranian shareholders, and the British authorities had certain political expectations from it. The main subject of this paper is to study the bank's policies facing these conflict of interests in order to better understand an important part of the financial history of the Qajar era, and  the attempts has been made to do the research in historical way and by using descriptive-analytical method and with reference to the available sources and references. This study seeks to answer the question of whether the bank was able to perform its various tasks efficiently. The paper concludes that the bank was neither significantly profitable for its shareholders, nor did perform its' functions as a state-owned bank properly, and nor did its' duties in realizing the British government's colonial goals