German banks stand by Iran despite US’ threats

23 May 2018 - Tehran (ISNA) – Six credit unions in southern Germany are still processing payments to Iran, undaunted by the risk of US’ sanctions against Iran.

While Germany’s big banks are avoiding Iran-related deals for fear of US reprisals, six credit unions, or Volksbanken, from southern Germany are appear unafraid and are continuing to provide trade finance, Handelsblatt reported.

Patrizia Melfi, head of the International Competence Center, which was set up by the banks to handle foreign business, said the supervisory board “gave us the green light on Thursday.”

Despite Washington’s hard line on Tehran, the center will keep handling transactions for companies that export goods and services to Iran. Their affairs will likely continue unimpeded until early August, when the United States’ new rules come into effect.

Basically, as long as companies and banks stick to the requirements and regulations of the current export controls of the EU and the US, nothing can happen to them, Ms. Melfi said.

These unions include Volksbank am Württemberg, Pforzheim, Heilbronn, Konstanz, Schwarzwald-Donau-Neckar and Vereinigte Volksbank.

Melfi went on to say that her network could continue to settle transactions, even if the interbank messaging service SWIFT, which is used to transfer trillions of dollars between banks every day, were to stop transferring money to and from Iran. “We could maintain payments even without SWIFT and with the help of the Bundesbank,” she said, referring to the German central bank.

Source: https://en.isna.ir/news/97030201063/German-banks-stand-by-Iran-despite-US-threats