Americas

Americas

U.S. welcomes move to disconnect Iranian banks from SWIFT transaction service

16 March 2012 01:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States on Thursday welcomed the latest move in disconnecting the blacklisted banks in Iran from the SWIFT global electronic financial transaction service, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The United States welcomes today’s action by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) to terminate services for designated Iranian banks, which we understand includes the Central Bank of Iran," Under Secretary of Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in a written statement.

The SWIFT move against Iranian financial institutions put under sanction by the European Union (EU) will become effective on Saturday at 16:00 GMT, the Belgium-based group, a member-owned cooperative, said in a press release posted on its website.

"Today’s decision reflects the growing international consensus that substantially increased pressure is needed to convince the Iranian regime to address the international community’s concerns about its illicit nuclear activities," Cohen said.

"Taken in the context of increasingly powerful sanctions applied by the United States, the EU and many others in the international community, today’s action reinforces the isolation of designated Iranian banks from the international financial sector," he said, vowing continuous efforts with U.S. partners to further increase the pressure on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

Iran insists on the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, while the Western countries have been pressing for a cessation of its uranium enrichment activities to clear their doubt about its intention to make nuclear weapons.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bill at the end of last year, expanding U.S. sanctions against Iran to cover its central bank and financial sector, a move that allows penalties on foreign banks that settle oil imports with the Iranian central bank.

As the world’s biggest electronic banking system, SWIFT has under its umbrella more than 9,700 banking organizations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 209 countries, with a daily exchange of millions of standardized financial messages valued at more than 6 trillion U.S. dollars.

Lazaro Campos, CEO of SWIFT, said his group took action under a European Council decision.

"Disconnecting banks is an extraordinary and unprecedented step for SWIFT. It is a direct result of international and multilateral action to intensify financial sanctions against Iran," he said.

SWIFT said that the affected Iranian financial institutions and the SWIFT customer community have been notified of the disconnection.