While Iranians rejoice over A Separation’s unprecedented victory at the Oscars and the Iranian media is preoccupied with Friday’s parliamentary elections, the country’s businesses are bracing for the worst. The economy, it appears, is contracting. After boycotting Iran’s oil and banking industries, the United States and its allies impose sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) that threaten to severely disrupt Iranian business activities. Earlier this month, the Society for Worldwide International Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, followed suit, announcing that it would move to bar sedsanctioned Iranian banks from using its financial communications and clearing systems. The announcement sent shockwaves through the Iranian business community………
Then, this past Friday, Swift revealed that its move would encompass the CBI, thus essentially denying the entire Iranian banking sector the ability to electronically transfer money abroad. The comprehensive Swift cutoff will make it virtually impossible for Iranian banks to shift money even between their own foreign branches outside o… >>>
