Tejarat Bank Easing French Business

Tejarat Bank has started offering services to French traders through its Paris branch “to help boost Iran-France commercial ties in the post-sanctions era”, the bank’s chief executive said.

“French traders can now refer to the Paris branch to directly send and receive payment orders for their deals with Iranian partners,” Mohammad Ibrahim Moqaddam was also quoted as saying during a meeting with French business delegates in Tehran on Wednesday.

“Sanctions disrupted Tejarat’s collaboration with French lenders. However, the bank has been working hard to normalize international ties since the lifting of sanctions in January 2016,” Moqaddam added.

Ali Mehrpour, director of Tejarat Bank’s Department for International Affairs, also said that his bank has been working to enhance its operations in accordance with international financial standards.

“Tejarat has established correspondent relations with three French banks at present,” he said.

“The Paris branch of Tejarat Bank is already connected to SWIFT and TARGET 2 networks,” Mehrpour told Financial Tribune in a phone interview on Wednesday.

According to Mehrpour, the state-owned “La Banque postale” is among the banks Tejarat Bank has linked up with.  

Established in 1979, Tejarat is the sixth largest bank in Iran. It currently has 1,800 branches across the country along with branches and offices in Dubai, Beijing and Dushanbe. The lender also owns stocks in the Persia International Bank in the UK and Eihbank in Germany.

Tejarat Bank announced earlier this week that it has filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice, seeking compensation for the losses it incurred during the sanctions that targeted Iran’s nuclear program.

Mohammad Khazaei, deputy minister of economy, was also present at the Wednesday meeting. 

“France was among the leading countries to start normalization of commercial ties with Iran after the sanctions’ removal,” he said, referring to contracts signed by Iranian firms with Renault, Peugeot Group and Airbus.

Khazaei noted that establishment of lasting commercial ties requires close collaborations between the two countries’ private sectors. “The Iranian government is committed to pave the way for the presence of French entities in Iran,” he said.

Khazaei added that Tejarat Bank is one of the leading Iranian banks in the field of international trade.

“The government and businesses in Iran rely on the lender for their international operations,” he added. 

Currently, the government owns 17% share of the bank.

Bank Melli Iran and Bank Saderat Iran are other Iranian lenders with branches in Paris. 

BMI’s branch has resumed operations after the lifting of the western nuclear sanctions against Iran. The branch is reportedly linked to the TARGET 2 network. 

BSI’s Paris branch is also expected to resume operations soon, as the lender has been recently removed from the European Union’s sanctions’ list.

Credit Agricole, Crédit Industriel et Commercial and Société Générale showed interest in returning to Iran during President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to the country last January. However, major French banks are still cold-shouldering the Iranian market, mainly due to the fear of US residual sanctions. 

Iran-France trade in the 11 months of 2016 amounted to €1.7 billion.