FT: US designates Iran central Bank:

Washington has called on international financial institutions to steer clear of doing business with Iran’s central bank, in the US’s most wide-ranging attempt yet to isolate Tehran financially.

The Treasury department has issued a warning of the risks of doing business with 51 state-owned and seven privately held Iranian banks – in effect the whole of Iran’s banking sector. The list includes institutions specialising in export financing and foreign investment, as well as Iranian state-owned banks located as far away as Venezuela, Hong Kong and the UK.

The move is an attempt to raise pressure on Tehran through measures that fall short of formal sanctions but go further than the private warnings US officials have delivered to regulators and financiers in recent months.

Big step, a correspondent notes.

Posted by Laura at March 23, 2008 09:58 AM