Smaller Banks Taking Lead on Iran Deals

With major UK and US banks still struggling to find reassurances from regulators to resume business with Iran nearly 10 months since “implementation day,” a handful of European banks are forging ahead and sealing transactions with the oil-rich nation. “I’ve recently found a new sport, which is hunting for small banks who want to do business with Iran,” said Andreas Schweitzer, senior managing partner at Arjan Capital Ltd., a Malta-registered investment and advisory firm that focuses on doing business with Iran, wsj.com reported. “And we won’t waste our resources looking for large banks; we will do business with medium sized banks–in Italy, Liechtenstein,” he said at the Iranian Trade Conference in London. Even after a significant batch of global economic sanctions against the country were lifted in January, many primary and secondary sanctions  linger, which means major global banks have mostly steered clear of facilitating deals with Iran.