Doing business with Iran is tricky and has become more so since the U.S. have withdrawn from the nuclear deal. A private bank has now cancelled its business with its counterparts in the Mullah-governed nation.
Banque de Commerce et de Placements (BCP) has stopped all transactions with Iran and will pull out of activities that involve the Asian nation. «We have suspended any new transaction related to Iran after May 8, 2018 and started the 'wind down period',» BCP said in an emailed statement to news agency «Reuters».
U.S. President Donald Trump canceled the nuclear deal with Iran at the beginning of this month and imposed new sanctions on the country.
Not the First Cancellation
Geneva-based BCP was one of the few financial services companies which had business ties with companies and banks in Iran, mainly to finance trade relations. The company already in 2011 had to cancel business activities with Iran during the height of the international tensions surrounding the disagreements about what the West said were attempts by Iran to build a nuclear arsenal.
Another reason for the first pullout was the paltry reputation of the central bank of Iran which allegedly had been involved in money laundering. In between, the bank evidently had ramped up again its business ties with Tehran.
Turkish Link
BCP was founded in 1963 and since 1991 belongs to Turkey’s Cukura Group. BCP had a trade financing volume of about 21 billion Swiss francs ($21.4 billion) in 2016.
Sources said that one of the reasons why BCP cancelled its business with Iran may be the ownership by a Turkish company. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker, recently was sentenced to 32 months in prison for business executed in Iran, an indication that companies from that region may have come under specific scrutiny by the U.S.
