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House Committee Advances Bill Targeting Foreign Banks with Hezbollah Ties
By Kira Zalan
printThe House Committee on Foreign Affairs Thursday unanimously approved a measure that would penalize foreign banks that offer financial services to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Shiite militant group. Under the amended version of the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department would prohibit or otherwise restrict when American banks can maintain correspondent and payable-through accounts for foreign counterparts that service Hezbollah-connected clients. The bill is modeled after the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, a law that pressured non-U.S. financial institutions to rethink their ties with Iranian clients. "That measure worked," said co-author...
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