A number of Iranian citizens (including people with dual citizenship) have been ringing the alarm on social media recently, saying that Armenian banks have frozen their accounts and refused to open others in light of the renewal of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Banks.am has contacted all commerical banks operating in Armenia and the national Central Bank to get a clearer, more detailed picture of the situation.  The Central Bank later issued an official statement, which reads that “the Central Bank does not prohibit banks from serving Iranian citizens or residents under any regulatory enactment”.
 
We present below the explanations we have received from the banks that responded to our request.

IDBank

IDBank has made no changes to its policy in 2018 and continues to serve the accounts of the citizens of Iran and other countries. The bank did not apply any restrictions to the accounts of Iranian clients.

As for opening of new accounts for Iranian citizens, we inform that the bank’s policy regarding this matter is defined solely by the requirements of the Armenian laws. In partiuclar, we take into account a number of parameters to determine the level of risk (this concerns all clients regardless of the country of residence or citizenship) and conduct additional research of the client’s profile if necessary. The bank makes the decision to permit or deny a new account based on the results of this procedure.

In fact, the bank bases the decision to allow or deny opening an account on the results of risk-assessment procedure, which is esablished by correspondig enactments.

We have received no official or informal order from the Central Bank of Armenia regarding the topic of discussion.

Byblos Bank Armenia

Byblos Bank Armenia does not service Iranian citizens due to the internal policy of the bank.

At the same time, it should be noted that Byblos Bank did not discuss possible restrictions with the U.S. Department of State, and there has been no official order from the Central Bank of Armenia.

HSBC Bank Armenia

HSBC Bank operates according to the laws and regulations on sanctions established by the European Union, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the United Nations, as well as the laws and regulations on sanctions in the countries where the bank has offices.

Inecobank

Inecobank works with its clients in strict adherence to the requirements of international and Armenian regulatory enactments. Therefore, the bank serves only the clients that are not subject to restrictions under international and Armenian sanctions. The bank adopted this policy at its own initiative and follows it consistently since the very beginning of operation.

We find it necessary to clarify that the bank serves Armenian citizens in accordance with the Armenian and international laws whether they have dual citizenship or not.

As for provision of service to non-residents, the bank applies stricter standards for opening accounts for them or realizing their transactions. Inecobank studies each case thoroughly and approves it based on the relevant documents, the aim of the transaction, and other parameters.

At the same time, we believe that the stance of Armenian Central Bank and U.S. state agencies on provision of service to Iranian citizens is available in multiple press reports. We suggest the media to contact any of the mentioned agencies directly for more information.

Siranush Simonyan