(MENAFN- Trend News Agency ) Tehran, Iran, October 18
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
After a long period of no-show of the banking benefits of Iran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it seems that Iranian businesses are at last starting to enjoy the benefits that followed the deal.
The deal, reached in 2015 and implemented in January 2016, removed international sanctions on Iran in return for limiting Iran's nuclear program. However, international banks seemed hesitant to start working with Iranian clients, fearing punishment by the United States, whose Treasury had previously exacted heavy fines from some violators of embargoes on Iran.
Now after nearly two years, Iranian companies are saying that they have managed upon occasions to engage in financial transactions with partners overseas.
"Recently we imported steel rolls from Japan. We worked directly with a Japanese bank instead of using a third party as was the norm when Iran was under sanctions," Amir Mansouri, the head of promotion at Calup Corp. told Trend October 18.
Calup is a manufacturer of pipes used in water, oil, gas, and petrochemical industries. It is currently providing 900-km 12-inch tubes with 6.35 mm thickness based on API 5L-Gr B standard for the National Iranian Gas Company, as well as 85-km 12-inch tubes with 6.35 mm thickness based on API 5L Grade X42 for Khuzestan Gas Company.
"It has become much easier to open SWIFT connections directly and also to open lines of credit," he noted.
Thanks to such developments, he said, the company is also improving its markets abroad, including in Iraq and Turkmenistan.
Iranian banks, their overseas branches and affiliates were officially removed from SWIFT's list of sanctions in January 2016 as the embargo against the country was officially lifted when Iran's nuclear deal with global powers came into effect.
In March, Valiollah Seif, the governor of Central Bank of Iran, reported that the country's banking system had established relations with 264 foreign banks since the lifting of the sanctions.
Although sanctions had been lifted, US measures, including a ban on dollar trading and a freeze on US banks engaging in trade, remain in place. This left for some time many non-US banks and insurers wary of processing transactions with Iran.
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