Reuters reports that Mega International Commercial Bank will terminate a payment clearing mechanism it has with Iran after November
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/08/13
By: Duncan DeAeth, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
(By Central News Agency)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In the wake of the U.S. backing out of the Iran nuclear deal, and calling for re-imposed sanctions, a major Taiwanese bank is taking the initiative to sever financial ties with the Central Asian Islamic Republic.
According to reports, Taiwan’s Mega International Commercial Bank, or Mega Bank (兆豐銀), will terminate a “payment clearing mechanism” established between Taiwan and Iran after November of this year.
Out of concern for repercussions following the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran by the Trump administration, a representative of the bank was quoted in the Reuters report as saying the bank’s “business with Iran is too sensitive, and we should no longer get involved in it.”
A February report from Bloomberg notes that after the U.S. began heavily penalizing European banks that were assisting in Iran’s banking and energy sectors, that Iran began to utilizing financial partnerships in Asia as their primary avenue to access U.S. dollars. [FULL STORY]
