Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Iran has established correspondent relationships with 230 foreign banks since January 16, following the implementation of the nuclear deal.

Vice-Governor of Iran’s Central Bank Gholamali Kamyab told Mehr that the Iranian banks launched letters of credit in the amount of $17 billion in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (started from March 20).

In addition, Iran's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance reported that the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI), upon expansion of its cross-border activities, has begun brokerage relations with numerous banks around the world.

The latest status of EDB (Export Development Bank of Iran) reveals that brokerage ties have been formed with a total of 64 banks in 20 European countries, 36 banks in 17 Asian states, four banks in Africa as well as one bank in Latin America.

The P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the UK, the US as well as Germany) reached a historic deal with Iran last year to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program in return for lifting the nuclear-related sanctions.

The JCPOA came into force in January, removing nuclear-relations sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran putting certain restrictions on its nuclear activities.

In the same month, the European Union and the US formally announced the lifting of economic embargoes against Iran after the IAEA verified Tehran’s compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal.

However, the Islamic Republic complains that it still does not have access to global financial markets. Many international banks still shy away from financing trade deals and processing transactions for fear of US penalties.

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Gunay Hasanova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @gunhasanova

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