Gazprombank is starting activity in Iran along with other Russian banks, Akbar Komijani, deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran said according to Bloomberg.
Komijani said he had held talks in St. Petersburg with “big Russian banks,” Russian News Agency TASS reported Tuesday.
The presence of Russian banks is a necessary condition for increasing trade turnover between countries and for the expansion of Russian companies in the Iranian market, he noted.
Komijani also told a banking conference in Tehran this week that larger European banks are reengaging with the country.
Italy’s Unicredit, Switzerland’s BCP and Austria’s Erste Bank are reportedly some of the European banks that have started relations with Iran after lifting of the sanctions in January.
In March 2016, there was a meeting in the Bank of Russia between representatives of major Russian and Iranian credit institutions, as well as the two countries’ central banks to discuss the priorities of interbank cooperation, mutual opening of correspondent accounts by credit organizations, as well as the promotion of mutual foreign trade settlements.
The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Iranian Embassy in Russia, the Moscow Stock Exchange, the JSC Russian Agency for Export Credit and Investment Insurance (EXIAR), Vnesheconombank, and Iranian and Russian credit organizations.
Moscow and Tehran also discussed ways to facilitate the payment systems and wider use of the national currencies in mutual settlements.
Rebuilding Correspondent Relations
Director General of the International Affairs Department at the Central Bank of Iran Hossein Yaghoubi said in June that the bank began working with Gazprombank, but would like to expand the number of Russian partner-banks.
“We are now in the process of reestablishment of correspondent relations with Russia. The positive thing is that we have started negotiations with Gazprombank and have fulfilled all the recommendations. But we expect even more (Russian banks) ... Now we do not have issues relating to sanctions, so we look forward to developing the correspondent (interbank) relations,” he said at a panel session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
The United Nations, United States and European Union lifted in January economic and financial sanctions on Iran that had been imposed in connection with Tehran’s nuclear program. In the same month the SWIFT international banking system announced the lifting of sanctions on Iranian banks. According to the CBI, now all Iranian banks are connected to the international system of bank telecommunications.
Gazprombank is one of the three largest banks in Russia and ranks fifth in the list of banks in Central and Eastern Europe. It is owned by the Russian natural gas company Gazprom. Gazprombank as a universal financial institution delivers a wide range of banking and investment services to over 45,000 corporate and about 3 million private clients.
At present, it operates seven subsidiary and affiliated banks in Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Switzerland and Luxemburg, representative offices in China, Mongolia and India.
