Iranian bank co-owns active UK-based subsidiary, as well as IRGC-linked companies
Bank Tejarat owns a minority stake (40%) in Persia International Bank, a London-based company active since 2001. In 2013, that company was one of the parties involved in a landmark European Union court ruling that overturned the freezing of its assets in the European Union.
Bank Tejarat is co-owned by government-affiliated entities as well as Tamin Investment Fund. It also holds stakes in various companies with ownership links to the IRGC’s Sepah Cooperative Foundation. These include two of the companies on Iran’s Top 10 Performing Companies List: Mobarakeh Steel and Bandar Abbas Refining.
Overview of Bank Tejarat
Bank Tejarat was founded on December 20, 1979. Bank Tejarat had approximately 1400 domestic branches in 2023 down from 1637 branches in 2019.
According to an archived version of its website from 2023 it has branches in France, China, Tajikistan, Belarus, Italy, the UK, and Germany.
Bank Tejarat has three subsidiary banks Trade Capital Bank (TC Bank), Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank Aktiengesellschaft (EIH), and PERSIA INTERNATIONAL BANK.
- Trade Capital Bank (TC Bank), which also goes by Bank Torgovoy Kapital Zao, ZAO “TK Bank, and Bank Trading Capital, was established in 2008 with an initial capital of 61,650,487 BYN (18,833,533 USD) with the aim of “supporting Iranian investment in Belarus, providing financial support for trade and economic cooperation between Belarussian businesses and their foreign partners, offering finance programs to local exporters doing business with countries in the Middle East, facilitating trade between Belarusian and Iranian companies and Extending financial support to small and medium-sized businesses in Belarus.”
The US Treasury imposed sanctions on TC Bank in 2012.
- PERSIA INTERNATIONAL BANK (PIB) was registered in the UK in 2002, following the merger of Bank Mellat and Tejarat in the country. PIB has branches in the UAE and one in Italy. PIB was designated as a sanctioned entity by the US Treasury in 2018.
- Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank Aktiengesellschaft (EIH) was founded in 1971 under the name “Deutsch-Iranische Handelsbank Aktiengesellschaft” in Hamburg Germany. According to its website, its name change to EIH Bank took place in 1992 “due to business expansion.” The bank opened its first branch on Kish Island in 2005. EIH is joint Bank Mellat and Tejarat Venture.
EIH was subjected to US Treasury sanctions in 2018 for “having provided or attempted to provide, financial, material, technological, or other support for, or goods or services in support of, Bank Sepah. As recently as 2018, EIH maintained active account services for Bank Sepah, including processing the equivalent of millions of dollars worth of euro payments in support of Bank Sepah.” The Treasury document states that EIH is owned or controlled by Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine (BIM). Our search of business registries and other open-source documents could not confirm this.
- There is no information available regarding the Chinese branch of Bank Tejarat except for an address.
- The French branch of the bank was registered in 1981 as Banque Tejarat; there is no other information available about this branch except for an address.