Iran’s shadow economy is imploding: How the Revolutionary Guard is driving the country to ruin
The news came like a bombshell amidst an already dramatic crisis: Five Iranian banks are on the brink of collapse, including Sepah Bank, one of the country’s three largest financial institutions and simultaneously the financial hub for the powerful Revolutionary Guard and the regular army. This news, published by the Wall Street Journal in January 2026, marks more than just another episode in the chronic decline of the Iranian economy. It reveals the structural implosion of a system that for decades has been based on a toxic mix of ideological power politics, systemic corruption, and economic self-exploitation.
The looming insolvency of Sepah…