Italy's Banca Popolare di Sondrio, 20 Iranian Banks Start Money Transfer Service

The possibility of direct transfer of money between an Italian bank and 20 other Iranian banks has been established, Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture has announced citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According a TCCIMA's news website, Banca Popolare di Sondrio has agreed on a Money Transfer Service with its Iranian peers at a 0.15% fee. This puts the bill for transferring every €1,000 at €1.5–good news for Iranian businesses and banks used to sky-high fees during the sanctions.

Under the nuclear sanctions, Iranian companies took recourse to unconventional fund transfer methods such as through exchange houses–schemes that proved costly, time-consuming and sometimes unreliable.

 Normal banking channels make trade much easier by cutting costs and reducing risks. Furthermore, such transactions would be in line with FATF rules and regulations- an intergovernmental organization founded in 1989 to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. Iran hopes to be removed from the organization's blacklist in July. 

According to the Banco Popolare di Sondrio, the service is not only available for businesspeople, can also be used by Iranian students living in Italy.

As announced by the foreign ministry, the list of Iranian banks which have a working relationship with Banca Popolare di Sondrio include Saman Bank, Parsian Bank, Bank Pasargad, Tejarat Bank, Bank Mellat, Bank Melli, Bank of Industry and Mine, Middle East Bank, Karafarin Bank, Bank Sepah, Keshavarzi Bank, Export Development Bank of Iran, Shahr Bank, Bank Hekmat Iraninan, Refah Kargaran Bank, Sarmayeh Bank, Day Bank, Tourism Bank, Sina Bank and Tose'e Ta'avon Bank.

The Banca Popolare di Sondrio had organized an "Iran Day"(Giornata Iran) on May 24, 2016, in Sondrio in order to present an overview of the Iranian market, in the wake of the nuclear deal on Jan,16 of 2016 which led to the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran. 

Founded in 1871, the Banca Popolare di Sondrio is one of the first popular Italian banks to be inspired by the popular cooperative banking movement. 

The bank's capital, which stands at around €1.360 million, is shared by over 185,000 Shareholders, most of whom are its customers.

The bank employs approximately 2,600 persons and has over 330 branches. 

Since international sanctions over Iran's nuclear program were lifted in January, the world's big banks have continued to stay away because they fear being penalized by remaining US sanctions.

This has slowed Iran's efforts to rebuild its foreign trade and lure investment. However, Tehran has begun making a dent in its financial isolation by forging banking channels via small institutions, many of which do little or no business in the United States and so feel less legally exposed when they engage with Iran.