May 13, 2016
Some of Britain’s biggest banks will hold talks this week with US Secretary of State John Kerry as they wrestle with the question of whether or not to do business with Iran.
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) circulated a note to its members inviting them to send senior representatives to a meeting with Kerry, who flew to London this week to attend an anti-corruption summit. The meeting was expected to take place after the Iran Times went to press this week.
The discussions will be held against an uncertain backdrop for UK banks, some of which are keen to do more business with Tehran but remain nervous about the consequences of deals that may be frowned upon by Washington.
Kerry has sought to allay concerns among foreign banks, saying last month that the US “is not standing in the way, and will not stand in the way, of business that is permitted in Iran since the [nuclear deal] took effect.
“There are now opportunities for foreign banks to do business with Iran. Unfortunately there seems to be some confusion among some foreign banks and we want to try and clarify that,” he said.
This week’s meeting will take place just weeks after the banking industry’s main lobbying group moved to establish a high-level panel to navigate the removal of Western sanctions against Iran.
British banks have come under pressure from the government to expand links with Tehran ahead of a trade visit to Iran led by Sajid Javid, the Business Secretary, which is due to take place later this month.
Sources said that many BBA members, which include UK-headquartered and international banks with operations in Britain, had expressed unease about forging closer ties with Iran.
Prime Minister David Cameron even accused Barclays Bank of operating “in opposition to the policy of the UK government” by declining to process customers’ payments from Iranian entities.
UK-based exporters have complained they have slipped behind their competitors from France, Germany and Italy because of a lack of support from the British Embassy in Tehran.
Lord Lamont, who has been appointed as the prime minister’s trade envoy to Iran, acknowledged the UK was trailing its European rivals.
“Britain suffered a bit because the Government not only enforced sanctions but actively discouraged even legal trade while sanctions were in place,” he told Sky News in an interview in February.
“ The result was that British trade collapsed by much more than that of Germany, France, Italy. Even America has exported more to Iran recently than we have,” he said.
