The United States is pressuring the European Union and a global electronic banking system to expel Iranian banks from a network used to transfer money, another step in Western efforts to deprive Tehran of funds needed to develop nuclear weapons. Kicking Iranian banks out of the Belgium-based SWIFT, or Society for World-wide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, would cut off one of the only remaining avenues for Iran to transact business with the rest of the world.
European banking regulators may meet with SWIFT's board as early as Thursday to discuss expelling designated Iranian bank users, according to two sources familiar with the matter. SWIFT facilitates the bulk of the world's cross-border payments, exchanging 18 million payment messages per day between banks and other financial institutions in 210 countries.
The United States and Europe have already slapped sanctions on Iran's central bank, the main clearinghouse for its oil revenues, which would punish Tehran's trading partners unless they significantly curb their purchases of Iranian oil. The US Congress is considering new legislation that would give the United States authority to sanction SWIFT, but President Barack Obama's administration indicated it was already ramping up the pressure. The US Treasury's under-secretary for Terrorism and Financial Crimes, David Cohen, travelled to Brussels this month to discuss the sanctions.
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