Bank Mellat, Iran’s third largest state-owned bank, is getting around US-imposed sanctions by establishing links with small and medium-sized banks that have less US exposure than bigger lenders, its managing director said. Ali Divandari told the Financial Times that US sanctions had failed to prevent the bank’s “links with the international brokerage network”, adding: “We managed to quickly replace other banks.” The US in October imposed unilateral sanctions against three of Iran’s commercial banks...Analysts say financial sanctions have hit Iran harder than the United Nations-imposed sanctions, which are largely restricted to nuclear- and missile-related activities and people involved in such activities.
...“The US sanctions initially had a negative impact on the bank’s reputation and created troubles, but in practice there was no halt in our operations,” Mr Divandari said. “We are now working with important international commercial and correspondent banks on a daily basis . . . including European, Asian and African ones.”...
...“It will be troublesome if Europe imposes unilateral sanctions on Iran’s banks, but we will be able to again replace the outgoing banks,” Mr Divandari said.He warned the foreign banks that if they left it could be difficult for them to return. There have been no foreign lenders in Iran since the 1979 revolution, when all banks were nationalised. However, big international banks have had representative offices, which have been scaled down or shut during the past two years because of sanctions.
Mr Divandari said Iran’s market could not be ignored. “Domestic investment on its own cannot meet the country’s needs...(FT.com)
Full Article: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a05a3cb2-6f9f-11dd-986f-0000779fd18c.html
