May 16, 2016
European banks have been staying out of Iran since the implementation of the nuclear deal in January, despite U.S. encouragement to seek business there. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with banking leaders in London, but again, they tuned him out, with several banks telling The Wall Street Journal they still won’t enter the Iranian market.
Stuart Levey, chief legal officer of HSBC Holdings PLC, gave some reasons why his bank won’t re-enter Iran in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, saying, among other things, that “no one has claimed that Iran has ceased to engage in much of the same conduct for which it was sanctioned.” HSBC, for its part, agreed to pay $1.9 billion in penalties in 2012 to settle allegations that included failures to stop transactions with, among others, sanctioned Iranian entities. “Governments can lift sanctions, but the private sector is still responsible for managing its own risk and no doubt will be held accountable if it falls short,” wrote Mr. Levey.