🔶 "Iran’s Use of U.S. Banks to Bypass Sanctions"

🔶 "Iran’s Use of U.S. Banks to Bypass Sanctions"

The Wall Street Journal wrote that the Trump administration, in its latest campaign to exert economic pressure on Iran, has encountered an unexpected weakness: American banks.

According to this report, despite sanctions that nearly prohibit any financial activity related to Iran for individuals and entities covered by U.S. laws, billions of dollars in Iranian money each year pass through clearing accounts at U.S. banks.

Western officials and researchers said this money finds its way into the U.S. financial system through indirect banking relationships and networks of foreign banks.

The Wall Street Journal wrote that Iran uses an old mechanism in the global financial system called correspondent banking. Under this system, foreign banks keep accounts in American banks in order to carry out dollar transactions and connect with global markets. This network, which is more than a century old, helps link the global financial system, but at the same time provides avenues for Iran’s covert influence over dollar transactions.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has warned foreign banks that if they process dollar transactions related to Iran through correspondent accounts in the United States, they may be targeted by punitive measures. U.S. officials have also asked banks in this country to increase their oversight of transactions related to Iran.

However, identifying these transactions is difficult, because Iran uses a complex network of shell companies and intermediaries to conceal its financial ties with Tehran.

On August 28, the U.S. Treasury Department introduced an Emirati branch of a state-owned Egyptian bank as one of the institutions that, according to Washington, has helped Iran gain access to the U.S. banking system.

Hashtags: ["DW Farsi"]