SWIFT cuts banking ties with Iran

BRUSSELS - The Associated Press

The SWIFT global financial transaction service said yesterday that it was cutting ties with Iranian banks that are subject to European Union sanctions aimed at discouraging the country from developing nuclear weapons.

The action effectively enforces EU sanction because the world’s financial transactions are impossible without using SWIFT.

SWIFT is a banking hub crucial to oil, financial transactions and other trades. In a statement, SWIFT said the EU decision “prohibits fşrms such as SWIFT to continue to provide specialized financial messaging services to EU-sanctioned banks.”

“Disconnecting banks is an extraordinary and unprecedented step for SWIFT,” Lazaro Campos, chief executive of SWIFT, said. “It is a direct result of international and multilateral action to intensify financial sanctions against Iran.”