European-Iranian commercial bank

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  European-Iranian Handelsbank AG
logo
Country GermanyGermany Germany
Seat Hamburg
legal form Corporation
Bank code 203 103 00
BIC EIHB DEHH XXX
founding 1971
Website www.eihbank.de
Business data 2018
Total assets 4,854.1 million euros
insoles 4,252.4 million euros
Customer credit 397.3.1 million euros
Employee 94
management
Board Arash Onsori (acting chairman)
Sabine Hummerich-Metzger
Supervisory board Dr. Hossein Mehri (Chairman)

The Europäische-Iranische Handelsbank AG ( advertising abbreviation eihbank ) is a German banking institute founded in 1971 by Iranian merchants in Hamburg as the German-Iranische Handelsbank , owned by the Iranian state, with a German banking license and headquartered in Hamburg . The task is to support trade between Europe and Iran.

history

1971  - Founding of the German-Iranian Handelsbank as a stock corporation in Hamburg

1990  - the bank moves into a newly built own building (designed by Gottfried Böhm)

1992  - due to business expansion, the name is changed to European-Iranian Handelsbank AG

2005  - eihbank is the first foreign bank to open a branch in the Iranian free trade zone Kish Island

2008  - Conversion of the Tehran representative office into an independent branch

Alignment and products

The bank conducts the international documentary business with customers and banks in Iran, traditionally primarily to handle trade between Europe and Iran. This includes both the trading business in the narrower sense, with raw materials, preliminary products and trading goods, as well as the project business, mainly in the context of plant construction and transport. Over the years, eihbank has developed into a specialist for products related to letters of credit and target-oriented financing solutions.

owner

The European-Iranian Handelsbank is a German stock corporation. It is 52% owned by the Iranian Industry and Mining Bank , 26% by the Iranian Bank Mellat and 19% by the Iranian Bank Tejarat .

Sanctions

Headquarters of the European-Iranian commercial bank in Hamburg

The European-Iranian commercial bank has been removed from the EU sanctions list since Implementation Day on January 16, 2016. UN resolution 2231 (2015) was implemented in accordance with the JCPOA through the EU legal acts of October 18, 2015 by resolution (CFSP) 2015/1863 amending decision 2010/413 / CFSP of the EU Council and both Implementing Regulations (EU) 2015/1861 and 2015/1862, which are directly applicable in all member states of the European Union.

The bank immediately submitted an application to reactivate the BIC code to SWIFT in order to connect it to electronic payment transactions and took all necessary measures to implement it. Access to the European payment system TARGET2 was completed on March 1, 2016; the connection to SEPA payment transactions took place on April 7, 2016.

In 2018, the European-Iranian commercial bank wanted to withdraw 300 million euros in cash from the Bundesbank and fly to Tehran. The project was not pursued further later.

history

The negotiations between the G5 + 1 countries and Iran that had been going on since November 2013 dragged on until mid-2015, before the breakthrough with the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on July 14, 2015 was achieved. With this comprehensive agreement to end the more than ten-year conflict, the lifting of the sanctions was determined in several steps. The first stage included the release of frozen assets, the lifting of financial, banking and insurance sanctions as well as the lifting of the sanctions for the oil, gas and shipping industries and came through with the Implementation Day after the implementation and fulfillment of extensive nuclear-related measures Iran in force. By resolution (GASP) 2016/37 of January 16, 2016, the EU Council determined that Iran had taken the measures in Appendix V of the JCPOA and that Implementation Day had therefore occurred. Along with the decision, the two EU Regulations 2015/1861 and 2015/1862 took effect, including the deletion of eihbank from Annex VIII of Regulation (EU) 267/2012. In addition, the extensive reporting and approval requirements of the aforementioned ordinance ceased to apply on this date.

US and UN sanctions

The bank is on the US Treasury's sanction lists, but (in contrast to the banks Melli and Saderat ) it is not an object of United Nations resolution 1803 . The sanctions prohibit doing business with the bank to prevent the proliferation of nuclear and missile technology in Iran. The bank's assets have been frozen as a result of the sanctions in various countries.

There were no German or European sanctions against the EIH-Bank until May 23, 2011, such as a. had been called for by the German federal government in the past by eleven American senators. Therefore, the Bundesbank had enabled the EIHB to financially handle a 9 billion euro oil business for the Indian government by accepting Indian money and making it available to the EIH-Bank on a Bundesbank account. The bank points out that, as a German company, it only participates in financing and the processing of transactions that are approved by the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control or that do not require approval, and that it complies with all UN resolutions and EU directives. The bank does not conduct business within the framework of the US financial system.

European sanctions

In connection with the release of the two journalists Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch , the suspicion was expressed that the German government in return helped the European-Iranian commercial bank to handle an oil deal with India.

The chairman of the EIHB's supervisory board until the end of 2010 was the head of Bank Mellat Ali Divandari , whose assets were frozen due to EU sanctions. According to the European Union, the Tehran bank Mellat enables the Iranian nuclear and missile program. The European Union has also extended its sanctions to all subsidiaries of Bank Mellat.

Following a request from the British government and after approval by the German government, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers decided on May 23, 2011 to put the European-Iranian commercial bank on the European sanctions list along with another 100 companies and 5 private individuals. According to the EIHB, the EIHB's assets are frozen in accordance with the EU regulation, but are available after approval by the Deutsche Bundesbank's Financial Sanctions Service Center , Munich. Contrary to current press reports, the EIHB does not have to cease its business completely, but would continue to handle existing business within the framework of the existing EU regulations. It will fully honor the commitments it has made. Letters of credit advised by the EIBH up to and including 23 May 2011 enjoy grandfathering and can continue to be served in accordance with the currently valid EU regulations. This also applies to letters of credit from listed Iranian banks that were notified by the EIHB before the issuing bank or the EIHB were included in Annex VIII.

The European sanctions against the EIHB are justified with their central role in helping to find alternative solutions for the execution of transactions by a number of Iranian banks that were themselves sanctioned by the EU. The EIHB performed advisory and brokerage activities in these transactions. For example, at the beginning of August 2010 the EIHB froze the accounts of the banks Saderat Iran and Bank Mellat , which were subject to EU sanctions, but then continued these euro transactions with an Iranian bank that was not subject to sanctions, using EIHB accounts. In August 2010, the EIHB set up a system that enabled routine payments to Bank Saderat London and Future Bank Bahrain , so that EU sanctions were circumvented. Such a motivated continuous flow of payments has existed since October. Banks subject to sanctions had passed money on to the EIHB through the Iranian Bank of Industry and Mine . In 2009, the EIH was used by Post Bank as part of a system to circumvent the sanctions; transactions were carried out in the name of the United Nations designated Bank Sepah. Bank Mellat, designated by the EU, is one of the parent companies of EIH.

Other banks that have been sanctioned by the EU since May 23rd are the

  • Belarusian bank Onerbank ZAO , (also known as Eftekhar Bank or Honor Bank ), the
  • Iranian Ansar Bank (also known as Ansar Finance and Credit Fund , Ansar Financial and Credit Institute or Ansae Institute or Ansar al-Mojahedin No-Interest Loan Institute , Ansar Saving and Interest Free-Loans Fund ), as well as the
  • Iranian Mehr Bank (aka Mehr Finance and Credit Institute or Mehr Interest-Free Bank )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Master data of the credit institute at the Deutsche Bundesbank
  2. ↑ http://www.eihbank.de/de/reports/
  3. ↑ a b c d Handelsblatt : March 29, 2011 The Bundesbank's Iran Connection
  4. ↑ Decision (CFSP) 2016/37 of the Council of 16 January 2016 on the start of application of Decision (CFSP) 2015/1863 amending decision 2010/413 / CFSP on restrictive measures against Iran , accessed on 23 January 2017
  5. ↑ Information about the start of application of Council Regulation (EU) 2015/1861 amending Regulation (EU) No. 267/2012 on restrictive measures against Iran and Council Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1862 implementing Regulation ( EU) No. 267/2012 on restrictive measures against Iran , accessed on January 23, 2017
  6. ↑ For the time being, Iran does not use any cash transfers from Germany. In: Spiegel Online . September 4, 2018, accessed May 16, 2020 .
  7. ^ Iranian Banks , The United States department of the Treasury. Archived from the original on May 30, 2008 Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fincen.gov 
  8. ↑ United Nations Security Council , Resolution 1803, March 3, 2008: Security Council Tightens Restrictions on Irans's Proliferation-Sensitive Nuclear Activities, Increases Vigilance Over Iranian Banks, Has States Inspect Cargo. Adopting Resolution 1803 by 14-0-1, Council Welcomes Agreement between Iran, Atomic Energy Agency to Resolve Outstanding Issues on Iran's Nuclear Program
  9. ↑ a b Statement from European-Iranische Handelsbank AG ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 724 kB), September 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eihbank.de
  10. ↑ Spiegel.de of April 1, 2011 Bundesbank help with the oil business: The riddle of the German Iran deal
  11. ↑ a b European Union, July 26, 2010: Council decision of July 26, 2010 on restrictive measures against Iran and repealing common position 2007/140 / CFSP published in the Official Journal of the European Union July 27, 2010, p. 61.
  12. ↑ Berlin drops Iranian bank in Hamburg (May 15, 2011)
  13. ↑ a b c EIHB: Declaration by the European-Iranian Handelsbank AG ( Memento of the original dated September 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 38 kB) from May 25, 2011 (English / German) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eihbank.de
  14. ↑ a b Official Journal of the European Union, May 24, 2011: Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 503/2011 of the Council of May 23, 2011 for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No. 961/2010 on restrictive measures against Iran

Coordinates: 53 ° 32 ′ 53.6 ″  N , 10 ° 0 ′ 1.1 ″  E