Turkey has cancelled the licence of one of Iran’s largest private banks to operate in Istanbul. The cancellation of Bank Mellat’s licence was announced in an official gazette published early on Saturday.
The step follows a decision by Turkey’s banking regulator. Tehran-based Bank Mellat provides financial support to the Iranian government. OpenSanctions, an open database of information on sanctioned entities, says the bank is under sanctions from the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom.
According to the database, the Iranian government is Bank Mellat’s largest shareholder.
In cancelling the bank’s licence, the Turkish regulator cited section 71(b) of the country’s banking law. That section says the continued operation of an institution may create a threat to “the rights of depositors and owners of participation funds, and to the security and stability of the financial system”.
Turkey’s move against Bank Mellat comes two weeks after the United States imposed sanctions on a Turkish bank over alleged links to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
It was not immediately clear whether there is any connection between the US sanctions on the Turkish bank and the cancellation of Bank Mellat’s licence.