This paper studies bank loans over the business cycles in Iran to determine the role of Iranian banks in stabilizing credit. By estimating the long-run relations using dynamic OLS and fully modified OLS estimators, the findings show that real bank lending is positively related to real GDP in the long-run providing evidences of the pro-cyclicality of bank lending in Iran. Hence, Iranian banking system has not operated far away from the conventional banking system in that they have not the ability to stabilize credit over business cycles. The results of Toda-Yamamoto’s (1995) Granger non-causality test indicate a unidirectional causality running from real GDP to real bank lending. Moreover, the impulse response functions from estimating vector autoregressive models suggest positive and statistically significant response of real bank lending to shocks from real GDP reaffirming the pro-cyclicality of bank lending in Iran.

JEL Classification: C22, E32, G21