In accordance with Council Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 503/2011 of 23 May 2011 Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (eihbank) has been listed in Annex VIII of Regulation (EU) No. 961/2010 of the Council of the European Union, despite the fact that regular audits by the German regulatory authorities and auditing companies of the transactions executed via this bank have given no grounds for objections.
As we have already expressly confirmed in earlier statements, eihbank has always strictly complied with the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and European Union regulations. eihbank has taken wide-ranging measures to ensure compliance and observance of the regulations in their various prevailing versions.
Accordingly we see no legal grounds for our listing in Annex VIII of the above-mentioned regulation, and eihbank will be taking immediate legal steps against this measure.
We would like to advise readers that, contrary to current press reports, eihbank will not have to fully discontinue its operations, rather being able to continue executing existing business within the framework of EU regulations. Thus, we shall continue to meet our existing obligations in full.
This means, for instance, that letters of credit advised by us up until 23 May 2011, enjoy a right of continuance, and will continue to be serviced in conformity with the currently prevailing EU regulations. This also applies to the letters of credit of listed Iranian banks that were advised by us before the opening bank and ourselves had these restrictive measures imposed.
Under the EU regulation, eihbank‘s assets have been frozen. However, they are available subject to approval by the Financial Sanctions Service Centre of Deutsche Bundesbank (Servicezentrum Finanzsanktionen der Deutschen Bundesbank) in Munich, Germany.
Please contact the relevant department in our bank if you have any questions concerning the handling of your transactions via eihbank (more).
Hamburg, 25 May 2011
The Board of Management
Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG
