Idle staff surf the net in London's Iranian banks

If it were not for the light blue Persian-lettered sign outside, you might mistake Bank Saderat for just another foreign bank operating in the City of London financial centre. Sitting in a grey stone building in the heart of the City, the Iranian-owned bank counts the centuries-old Bank of England among its neighbours.
Saderat is one of a handful of lonely Iranian banking outposts that have managed to hold out in Europe's financial hub despite escalating tensions with the West over Iran's nuclear programme. Hit by international sanctions, the banks linger on, unable to take on new business. The pressure on them is rising. Last month, the UK forbid its banks to do any business with Iranian banks after a new report from a nuclear watchdog highlighted further concerns about the possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme.
And after an attack on the British embassy in Tehran last month, the UK closed down the Iranian embassy in London. All that is left now for the banks is to gradually wind down their existing business. Close to Bank Saderat in the City, the offices of another Iranian bank - Sepah International - are equally inconspicuous. The street sign is faded, and frosted glass obscures its interior.
Inside these banks, little happens. Dwindling numbers of employees are mainly idling their time away. "Sometimes staff arrive in the morning and can be on the internet for much of the day. I find that extremely frustrating," said an employee at one London-based Iranian bank, who like others in this story, asked not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to the press.
"We have only got a few items outstanding now and that is why we are being retained," he said. Charged by the West with helping to finance an illicit weapons program and militant groups, the banks' assets are frozen and they are barred from making new loans, allowed only to service those loans made before they were hit with sanctions by the European Union.
Less than 10 years ago, Iran's British banks - Saderat, Sepah, Melli Bank, and Persia International - boasted surging profits and growing ties with Europe. Iran has had bank branches in London since the 1960s, long before the 1979 revolution swept aside a monarchy and brought the country's Muslim cleric rulers to power. In the early 2000s, the branches began spinning off as subsidiaries, making it more difficult to prove a direct financial link to Iran.