INTRODUCTION

Urbanization expansion and necessity to paying attention towards housing , caused incorporation of “ Bank Rahni Iran” in 1938.

Hence , according to the law enacted on 15th January,1938  “ Bank Rahni Iran” was incorporated and commenced it's official operations from the beginning days of the year 1939. Ministry of Economic and Financial Affairs was authorized to found this bank with a capital of Rls  200 million together with Bank Melli Iran partnership.

The main subject of the bank operations was the affairs relating to housing sector among which , loan payments against collateralizing related real estate aiming house purchase, construction and completion , repair and facilitation and also granting credit to building and construction companies were the principal ones. It was so that by the victory of Islamic Revolution, bank could grant Rls 178.3 billion in form of hundreds of thousand loans for housing purposes to the applicants. Bank's capital grew up during some steps and in the phase of the banks integration it raised up to Rls 10 billion.

After Islamic Revolution victory , and in the way to the banks integration and nationalization during 1979, based on the legal act of the Bank Affairs Management , enacted by Islamic Revolution Council on 7th June, 1979 , Bank Sakhteman (Building & Construction Bank) , Iranian Banks Construction Investment Co., Kurosh , Ekbatan & Pasargad bank in Tehran and other savings and loan associations in Mashhad , Tabriz , Shiraz , Isfahan , Ahvaz , Gilan , Hamedan, Kermanshah, Mazandaran , Gorgan , Semnan and Abadan all integrated into the “Bank Rahni Iran” , and “Bank Maskan” incorporated.

Considering the matter that major part of Bank Maskan is made up of “Bank Rahni Iran” and integrated institutions with Bank Rahni's investment, in fact , Bank Maskan is the follower of “Bank Rahni Iran's” operations.

Also , bank's capital increased from Rls 42.7 billion at the integration time to Rls 1708.9 billion at the moment . During integration, the Bank had 97 branches and 66 units and also had designated 3.6% of the total staff in country's banking system.