EUROPAISCH-IRANISCHE HANDELSBANK AG

EIH has played a key role in assisting a number of Iranian banks with alternative options for completing transactions disrupted by EU sanctions targeting Iran. EIH has been noted acting as the advising bank and intermediary bank in transactions with designated Iranian entities. For example, EIH froze the accounts of EU-designated bank Saderat Iran and Bank Mellat located at EIH Hamburg in early August 2010. Shortly afterwards, EIH resumed Euro-denominated business with Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat Iran using EIH accounts with a nondesignated Iranian bank. In August 2010, EIH was setting up a system to enable routine payments to be made to Bank Saderat London and Future Bank Bahrain, in such a way as to avoid EU sanctions. As of October 2010, EIH was continuing to act as a conduit for payments by EU-sanctioned Iranian banks, including Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat. These sanctioned banks are to direct their payments to EIH via Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine. In 2009, EIH was used by Post Bank in a sanctions evasion scheme which involved handling transactions on behalf of UN-designated Bank Sepah. Bank Mellat is one of EIH’s parent banks.

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In 2020, the U.S. state of Mississippi listed EIH on its state lists of Companies Doing Business with the Iranian Petroleum/Natural Gas, Nuclear and Military Sectors, rendering it ineligible for investment and/or state contracting. (https://www.dfa.ms.gov/media/sd1ccddh/businesses-doing-business-with-iran-12-4.docx)

As part of the re-imposition of U.S. sanctions on Iran, added on November 5, 2018 to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), freezing its assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting transactions with U.S. parties, pursuant to Executive Order 13382, which targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems; foreign parties facilitating transactions for the entity or otherwise assisting the entity are subject to U.S. sanctions; also designated pursuant to Executive Order 13599 and subject to the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations; foreign financial institutions facilitating transactions for the entity may be prohibited from opening or maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts in the United States. (Iran Watch) (https://www.iranwatch.org/iranian-entities/europaisch-iranische-handelsbank-ag)

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