European banks pressured by U.S.

[Shuriken]

European banks pressured to end activities in Iran

Under pressure from the U.S., already fearing the economic crisis it might face in case Iran launches its Oil Bourse, trading oil in Euros instead of dollar, European banks started taking measures against the Islamic republic, limiting their activities in it, even though no sanctions had yet been imposed by the Security Council on Iran to force it curb its nuclear activities, the International Herald Tribune wrote today.

To avoid the U.S. threats of fines and lost business, four of the biggest European banks have started limiting their activities in Iran

The IHT editorial further stated that officials from the Treasury and State Department have over the past six months stepped up the pressure against banks to force them curb their activities in Iran, invoking anti-terrorism and banking laws.

Despite its intensifying efforts over the past year to pile the pressure on the Islamic Republic, using threats and heated war of words, the U.S. has so far failed to win a UN resolution imposing sanctions on Iran unless it agrees to suspend its nuclear program.

This U.S. foremost fear from Iran is not merely its nuclear program, but its Oil Bourse, which it plans to launch the coming few weeks, trading oil in Euros not dollars, which is expected to deal a major blow to the already fragile U.S. economy.

When Bush first took office in 2001, the United States’ public debt was $5.8 trillion. Today the public debt stands at $8.3 trillion [1]. Of this over $2.2 trillion are held by foreigners [2]. The United States has a GDP of $12.4 trillion . This gives the U.S. a Debt/GDP ratio of 66 percent, placing it in 35th place (out of 113) on the ranking of the Debtor Nations [3]. The current account deficit of over 7 percent has long passed its danger levels of 4-5 percent.

The U.S. is resorting to a different strategy that would help, along with the threat of sanctions or military strike, force Iran stop all activities related to uranium enrichment as well as freeze plans to shift the currency of trading oil from dollars to Euros.

Treasury and State Department have been warning banks against the risky nature of dealings with Iran, a country the U.S. accuses of covertly planning to develop a nuclear weapons program and "supports terrorism".

So far four European banks; UBS, Credit Suisse, ABN AMRO and HSBC; started limiting dealings with Tehran, after some of them were fined by U.S. authorities for currency violations on transactions involving Iran. It’s noteworthy that big and reputal European banks almost universally have branches in the United States, which are subject to U.S. laws.

Stuart Levey, the under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the Treasury, says: "We are seeing banks and other institutions reassessing their ties to Iran. They are asking themselves if they really want to be handling business for entities owned by a government engaged in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and support for terrorism."

In 2004, UBS was fined $100 million by U.S. regulators for currency violations involving Iran. TBS announced curbing direct business with any Iranian individual, business or bank, as well as freezing finance exports or imports for any of its corporate clients in Iran.

Also ABN AMRO was fined $80 million last December for allegedly failing to comply with U.S. sanctions on Iran.

"We have no representation in Iran," said Sierk Nawijn, a spokesman for ABN AMRO.

Georg Söntgerath, a spokesman for Credit Suisse, had been quoted as saying that "as of January, we have said that we will not enter into any new business relations with corporate clients in Iran."

The decision, which also applied to Syria and other countries, he said, came after an assessment of an "increased economic risk for our bank and our clients."

Also under pressure from the U.S. last month Iran was rated by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 30 leading countries with market economies, as a business risk.

Despite the $70-a-barrel prices that resulted in an estimated $25 billion in reserves, statistics show that Iran's economic growth has slowed to less than 5 percent. Also the stock market has dropped more than 20 percent in the past year, with new investments and construction declining and Iranians pulling their money out of Iranian banks and sending it abroad.

Some also resorted to buying gold.

The U.S. campaign aimed at cutting European banks’ dealings with Iran had intensified in the past month, according to administration officials involved in talking to banks.

Robert Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security, claimed that the use of American banking regulations and anti-terrorism laws against European banks had proved effective against Iran and would have a greater effect "if we can get other countries to take similar actions, which we are encouraging other countries to do."

But Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst of Iran at the International Crisis Group, an advocacy organization, believes that "I don't see the pullout of a few European banks doing a tremendous amount of damage,"

"They're making $300 million a day from oil revenues, and they can weather the storm."

Source

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Those tricky b*******...

[7 Percent]

Doesnt matter what pressure America puts on European banks , Iran will be ok due to the French Chinese and Russians who hate America and seek your downfall im afraid.

Edited May 23, 2006 by 7 Percent