Daijiworld Media Network - Istanbul
Istanbul, Sep 19: Turkiye’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) has revoked the operating licence of Iranian lender Bank Mellat’s Istanbul branch.
The decision, published in the Official Gazette on Saturday, said the licence of Bank Mellat’s Istanbul Central Branch, whose head office is in Tehran, had been revoked.
The regulator cited a provision of Turkish banking law that allows an operating licence to be revoked or withdrawn if a bank’s continued operation is considered to pose a risk to depositors’ rights or the security and stability of the financial system. The notice did not specify operational issues or refer to US sanctions as the reason for the decision.
Bank Mellat has faced Western sanctions for years over allegations related to Iran’s nuclear programme. Some sanctions were lifted under the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, but the United States withdrew from the agreement in May 2018 and reimposed economic sanctions on Tehran.
The US imposed further sanctions on Bank Mellat in 2019 after identifying it among 25 entities allegedly linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The development comes after the US Treasury Department earlier this month imposed sanctions on Turkish investment bank Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi and two of its subsidiaries over alleged links to Iran.
The US Treasury accused Golden Global Bank of facilitating tens of millions of dollars in transactions for the IRGC-Qods Force and providing the Iranian government with banking access to move funds internationally.
The Turkish regulator's decision on Bank Mellat did not state whether the latest US measures were connected to the licence revocation.