AFP: Japan Post Bank, the giant bank created last month when Japan broke up its post office, said Thursday it was suspending remittances to Iran because of US financial sanctions. TOKYO (AFP) Japan Post Bank, the giant bank created last month when Japan broke up its post office, said Thursday it was suspending remittances to Iran because of US financial sanctions.
“We are suspending operations for international remittances to Iran from November 22,” the Japan Post Bank, which has the largest savings among the world’s commercial banks, said in a statement.
It said it took the decision because its remittances were handled through intermediary banks forced to halt dealings with the Islamic republic due to the US sanctions.
Japan Post had each year processed about 200 remittances to addresses in Iran worth a total of about 50 million yen (455,000 dollars), a bank spokesman said.
The US government on October 25 stepped up sanctions against Iran’s banks alleged to be involved in developing nuclear weapons or financing Islamic militants abroad.
The sanctions forbid any financial transactions between a US citizen or group with three of Iran’s largest state-owned banks.
Japan, in a rare break with the United States, has maintained cordial diplomatic and commercial relations with Iran both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Thousands of Iranians live in Japan, with the exact number disputed. Iranians were able to travel without visas to Japan, which usually has tight regulations on immigration, until 1992.
