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Iran's banking system suffered a new wave of cyberattacks on Tuesday, disrupting card-based services at three of the country's largest state-owned banks and triggering cascading slowdowns across the broader financial network, according to the state-owned technology provider that manages the country's banking infrastructure.
The Informatics Services Corporation told state television that targeted attacks on card-processing systems at Bank Melli, Bank Saderat and Bank Tejarat forced a full suspension of card-related operations at all three institutions to prevent further unauthorized access.
ATM services, point-of-sale terminals and mobile banking applications linked to card systems were all taken offline, the company's head of public relations said.
As customers sought to complete payments through other financial institutions, transaction volumes on Iran's payment network surged sharply, placing significant additional pressure on banking infrastructure across the system.
The ripple effect temporarily slowed or disrupted services at banks not directly targeted by the attacks.
Iran's central bank said the problems were expected to be resolved by Wednesday morning, with full services to resume thereafter.
By late Tuesday, banking sources indicated conditions at unaffected banks were beginning to stabilize and returning to normal.
Card-based services at Bank Melli, Bank Saderat and Bank Tejarat remained suspended as of Tuesday evening, with technical teams and cybersecurity specialists working to assess and repair the damage.
Tuesday's incident is the second major cyberattack to strike Iran's banking sector in under two weeks.
On June 14, Bank Melli, Bank Saderat, Bank Tejarat and the Export Development Bank of Iran were all disrupted after attackers targeted a shared communications system, Iran's Banking Coordination Council confirmed.
That incident took several days to resolve, though officials maintained that no customer data had been compromised.
Cyberattacks on Iranian infrastructure have become increasingly frequent in recent years.
The country's financial, energy and government systems have all faced significant intrusions, which Iranian authorities have repeatedly attributed to hostile foreign actors, including Israel. Israel has not commented on those allegations.
Iranian authorities have not publicly named any suspects in connection with Tuesday's attack. Cybersecurity teams were continuing their investigation as of Tuesday evening.
Iran has long alleged that its critical infrastructure is the target of state-sponsored cyberwarfare. The country's banking sector, which operates largely through domestically developed systems due to decades of international sanctions, has emerged as a recurring focus of such attacks.
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