One of the major topics in Iranian business became this impossibility of sending money to and from Iran. Yes, one would argue, clever traders have fund ways in using locations or support networks around the Gulf region and thus the money exchange was just a little bit more complex and time consuming. But actually it is a whole different world, if someone can transfer money from his account to Iran as one would do to any other country, except North Korea, of course.
Connected: 300 banks
So good news came up as Irans representative for re-SWIFTing confirmed this week, that the current problems with SWIFT are now settled. According to Abdolnaser Hemmati, Chairman of the Coordination Council of state-owned banks, now more than 300 banks are connected to SWIFT.
As heard in the news, the reconnection was highly discussed within Iranian government and taken as first sign, that the Iranian expectations for economic improvement after the nuclear deal will never be reached. So more hardliner friendly politicians took this opportunity for criticizing President Hassan Rouhani.
Inspired by German Government
So listen carefully, where the sound comes from, this signal is really good news. Now especially we in Germany have to remediate the problem with the open Iranian debts before we can start with Hermes again. But this seems to be, according to news, on a good way as Iranian officials agreed on this topic. And as it was recently in the news, that German government would like to see German banks more and more in the brave position of starting business again instead of reluctant waiting not to be trapped again.
So is this not a really good outlook ?
Stay tuned
Yours K-Street6 team