U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Iran’s ruling elite may believe their grip on power is slipping, as American sanctions trigger a financial crisis that has sent the country’s economy into free fall.

Testifying before the United States Senate Banking Committee, Bessent said the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign has systematically strangled Iran’s access to global dollars, fueling bank failures, runaway inflation and mounting public unrest.

“What we have done is created a dollar shortage in the country,” Bessent told lawmakers. “It came to a swift and, I would say, grand culmination in December, when one of the largest banks in Iran went under. There was a run on the bank.”

At the center of the turmoil was the collapse of Ayandeh Bank, one of Iran’s largest private lenders, which folded in October after racking up more than $5 billion in losses tied to regime-backed projects.

According to Bessent, the failure sent shockwaves through the financial system.

“The central bank had to print money, the Iranian currency went into free fall, inflation exploded, and hence we have seen the Iranian people out on the street,” he said.

The bank had attracted millions of ordinary depositors by offering unusually high interest rates, a strategy one Iranian oversight official later described as resembling a Ponzi scheme. When Ayandeh collapsed, thousands of families saw their savings wiped out, triggering widespread anger.

The The Wall Street Journal reported in January that the bank’s implosion helped ignite nationwide protests in December, as frustrated Iranians poured into the streets over rising prices and financial losses.

U.S. officials say Tehran’s response to the banking crisis only worsened the damage. Efforts to prop up failing institutions and inject emergency liquidity accelerated the collapse of the rial and sparked massive capital flight.

Iran’s central bank was forced to print money to stabilize the system, further eroding confidence and driving inflation sharply higher. Investors and businesses rushed to move assets abroad, hollowing out the economy.

“We have seen the Iranian leadership wiring money out of the country like crazy,” Bessent told senators.

“The rats are leaving the ship, and that is a good sign that they know the end may be near.”

While Iran’s leadership has publicly dismissed U.S. sanctions as ineffective, Bessent’s testimony suggests Washington believes the opposite is true, and that economic collapse is reshaping political calculations in Tehran.

Despite the mounting strain, U.S. officials caution that economic collapse does not automatically translate into political change. Iran’s security apparatus remains powerful, and past crises have not dislodged the ruling system.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)