Online services for Iran's Bank Melli and Bank Sepah suffered significant outages on March 10, prompting public frustration and the circulation of a fake Central Bank directive, which authorities quickly denounced as an act of media warfare.
On March 10, 2026, two of Iran's major state-owned financial institutions, Bank Melli and Bank Sepah, experienced severe disruptions to their mobile and internet banking platforms. The widespread outages fueled an array of rumors, including a forged letter attributed to the Central Bank governor, which led state authorities to issue aggressive denials framing the rumors as an orchestrated media war.
The technical issues began early Tuesday morning, completely cutting off access to mobile applications and internet banking portals for many users. The foreign-based German international broadcaster DW Persian دویچهوله فارسی, reporting on statements from the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim news agency, noted that Bank Melli confirmed disruptions in its Bam system but maintained that card-based services, ATMs, and point-of-sale terminals remained fully operational. The state-approved news aggregator آخرین خبر and the conservative regional outlet خراسان آنلاین echoed explanations from Fars News that the blackout was merely due to hardware switch changes at bank branches, claiming most services were restored within hours.
As systems went dark, a fabricated directive purportedly from the Central Bank governor circulated on social media, falsely claiming that strict banking restrictions had been implemented. Hardline and state-aligned channels, such as اخبارفوری خبرفوری جنگ امریکا فوری, heavily amplified the Central Bank's denial. The official statement dismissed the letter as completely fake and invalid, revealing it was the result of unauthorized access to a news portal. Authorities warned citizens to avoid sharing unverified content designed for media war and creating tension in the market.
The reformist channel حامیان پزشکیان reiterated the Central Bank's plea for the public to rely exclusively on official state sources. Despite the official assurances of a swift resolution, public frustration was highly visible. The informal tech channel ترفند آموزش تکنولوژی و فناوری complained that services had been disconnected since the previous night, bluntly declaring that the digital systems of these two banks are so useless they are only good for the graveyard.
The source messages blend standard technical outage reporting with highly charged political rhetoric, portraying misinformation during a banking outage as a deliberate media war. Bias labeling accurately reflects the split between state-approved/hardline channels echoing official narratives, reformist channels supporting state stability, and foreign outlets like DW Persian observing the state's crisis response. Loaded terminology was integrated smoothly into the English text without sanitization or distancing quotes.