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Source: https://global.handelsblatt.com/finance/german-banks-trade-payments-sanctions-iran-968648
German Banks Pull Plug on Trade with Iran
(Handelsblatt-Germany) Mathias Bruggmann - German banks are increasingly refusing to accept payments from Iranian banks, apparently more scared of the U.S. than of the EU. "80 to 85% of all payments to German banks are being rejected," said Helmut Gottlieb, director of the Hamburg branch of Bank Melli Iran. The Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, says it can't force banks to accept payments. The EU responded with a "blocking statute" that threatened European businesses with legal action if they complied with restored U.S. sanctions, but bankers said they have a right to reject payments despite the statute. "All banks can decide not to do business related to Iran, for example, if it entails a strategic business risk or because we can't rule out that the Revolutionary Guards may be involved in the end," said the compliance chief of a major German bank.