9 Iranian Banks to Reconnect to SWIFT from February 1

Valiollah Seif, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, announced the reconnection of 9 Iranian banks to the international banking system SWIFT starting from the early hours of Monday, February 1. The connection of Iran's banking network to this system had been severed since 2011 after the European Union imposed banking sanctions on Iran. According to Iranian news agencies, Seif stated on Sunday, January 31, that it had been announced the previous week that the issues preventing the 9 banks from connecting to SWIFT would be resolved by Saturday, and he has now been informed that 'the problem has been resolved and these 9 banks will connect to the SWIFT system.' The secure international system 'SWIFT' is used for exchanging financial messages between banks. Iranian banks were previously connected to this system, but after the intensification of banking and oil sanctions against Iran, the connection of the sanctioned Iranian banks was cut off on March 17, 2011. With the severance of this system, Iran was unable to transfer money from its oil revenues through the international banking network or conduct other banking transactions. However, after the implementation of the nuclear agreement, on January 16, which included the lifting of banking sanctions against Iran by the European Union, it was expected that Iran's banking network would reconnect to 'SWIFT.' According to ISNA news agency, the Central Bank of Iran had announced after the implementation of the JCPOA that this bank, along with the National Bank, Bank Tejarat, Bank Mellat, Bank Saderat, Post Bank, Bank Sepah, Bank of Industry and Mine, and Bank Refah Kargaran had been removed from the sanctions list and would soon connect to the 'SWIFT' system. The Central Bank Governor has now announced that these banks will connect to SWIFT from early Monday, but they will need a day or two to install the necessary software. He also mentioned that only these 9 sanctioned Iranian banks had not had access to SWIFT, while 'our non-sanctioned banks have been connected to SWIFT and have been using it since the implementation of the JCPOA.' Seif emphasized the accuracy of the date for the opening of 'LCs' (letters of credit), stating that these 'LCs were issued on the same day the JCPOA was implemented.' Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had mentioned the opening of dozens of 'LCs' on the same day, but conservative media opposed to the nuclear agreement expressed doubts about the accuracy of this statement, noting that the JCPOA was implemented on a Sunday when banks in Europe are closed. The Central Bank Governor responded that 'on Sunday (January 16), our LCs were processed in banks in the Gulf region, which are all open, and part of the LCs were received the next day in European banks.' Seif also stated that during his recent trip with the Iranian President to Italy and France, he was responsible for 'resolving the debt issues of Iranian banks and export insurance institutions of these two countries.' He added that after the lifting of sanctions, the debts of Iranian banks to the export insurance companies 'SACE' of Italy and 'COFACE' of France needed to be clarified and resolved. According to Seif, these two insurance companies had demanded interest and profit due to delays in the repayment of Iranian banks' debts and overdue installments, but 'Iran did not comply,' and this issue has now been resolved, with a settlement agreement finalized between the two parties. He stated that according to this agreement, the repayment of debts is to be done in three installments in 2016, and Iran hopes its insurance rating will be reassessed in February.