Indian Express – State Bank of India (SBI) has directed its overseas branches to stop transactions with Iranian entities. An internal circular issued by India’s largest bank to its branches last month shows India has also tacitly joined international sanctions against the country orchestrated by the United Nations. The development comes just weeks ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to India early next month.
The state-owned bank took this decision after it discovered few cases where Iranian entities attempted to break the bank’s firewall by using shell entities to purchase US dollars to finance their business. Such actions, the circular said, violates the OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) regulations of the US Treasury department. For any bank, such violations can expose their US operations to ‘punitive’ action from the banking regulator.
“As violations of regulatory compliance are viewed very seriously by the overseas regulators, including the OFAC authority, we reiterate that branches are not to process transactions in US dollar involving Iranian entities,” the SBI circular said.
