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Defense Bill to Impose Account Restrictions on Correspondent Banks Linked to Iran

By Brian Monroe

New economic sanctions against Iran are expected to shine more daylight on foreign banks processing certain commodities payments or maintaining accounts for individuals and companies blacklisted by the United States. On Friday, lawmakers approved a final version of the fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including provisions that would bar the maintenance in the United States of correspondent banking accounts for foreign financial institutions determined to have facilitated a "significant" transaction on behalf of any Iranian entity blacklisted by the U.S. Treasury Department. While most large, non-U.S. banks already screen for entities on the department's sanctions lists, many smaller...

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