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take “roughly four months for the procedure [merger] to be completed.”
Despite the likelihood of job losses across the board, the CBI said it would protect current workers’ positions amid the recession-hit economy. However, it is likely that many will lose their jobs as branch numbers are reduced over time.
The banks have differing levels of indebtedness, including from purchases of non-banking assets, the seizure of debtors’ assets and failures to have minimum capital requirements under the CBI rules.
The merging of the banks is believed to be seen by officials as part of Iran’s realisation of the much-delayed Palermo convention on anti-money laundering (AML) and countering the financing of terrorism (CFT). When completed the merger will mean significant oversight from regulators in the country, and it will be welcomed by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that has subjected Iran to special measures for slowness in applying AML/CFT requirements to loans.
8.1.6 ​Bank news
Former Halkbank top official who now heads Borsa Istanbul loses appeal against conviction in US for Iran sanctions evasion
Iranian minister hints Afghan bank looking to open branch in Chabahar free port
The former head of international banking at Turkiye Halk Bankasi (Halkbank), who last year was made CEO of the Istanbul stock exchange, has lost an appeal against his conviction for aiding an Iranian plot to evade sanctions and launder $1bn in oil revenue through the US financial system.
Mehmet Hakan Atilla was found guilty by a federal jury in Manhattan in 2018. He served most of a 32-month sentence before returning to Turkey where he became head of the Borsa Istanbul as the Erdogan administration protested his innocence. A federal appeals court in New York on July 20 upheld his conviction, Bloomberg reported. The court found that, while the trial judge gave an instruction to the jury that was partially incorrect, there was “overwhelming” evidence on an alternative theory of guilt.
Government-owned Halkbank faces related charges of evading US sanctions in Manhattan federal court. That case may come to trial as early as next year. The case is US v. Atilla, 18-01589, Second US Circuit Court of Appeals (Manhattan).
An Afghan bank is set to open a branch in Iran’s Chabahar port Free Trade Zone (FTZ) on the Indian Ocean, IRNA has reported, quoting the Iranian energy minister as hinting at the development while not naming the lender in question.
Chabahar free port, set on the Gulf of Oman, is Iran’s only oceanic port and, importantly, the development of it is not subject to US sanctions with Washington recognising the value of growing trade at the hub to the economic development of conflict-torn and landlocked Afghanistan. Deep-sea access to the Indian Ocean for the nations of Central Asia and growing flows of shipped goods from India, which is investing in developing the port with Iran, are two other aspects of Chabahar increasingly coming into focus. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are two Central Asian countries, landlocked like Afghanistan, that have shown clear interest in using the port to access international trade routes.
“Afghanistan is exempt from [US] sanctions, thus Afghan banks are permitted to operate in Chabahar,” energy minister Reza Ardakanian was quoted as
37​ IRAN Country Report August 2020 www.intellinews.com