Iranian-European Bank (German: Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG; Persian: بانک تجارتی ایران و اروپا, Bank Tejareti-ye Iran vâ Erupa) is a German bank founded in 1971.[1] Headquartered in Hamburg, it has two other branches in Kish Island (opened in 2005) and Tehran (representative office turned into branch in 2008).[2] The European-Iranian Commercial Bank is a German joint stock company. It is (majority) owned by Iranian Bank for Industries and Mines (52%), Iranian Bank Mellat (26%), and Iranian Bank Tejarat (19%).[3]
Its biggest shareholder is an Iranian state-owned bank, Bank of Industry and Mine, and other major stakeholders include Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat.[2] Due to sanctions against Iran, the bank was not operative between 2011 and 2016.[4] In 2018, before the US pulled out of the Iran deal and reinstated their sanctions, German tabloid Bild obtained information about plans to fly out €300 million ($350 million) in cash.[5] Iran subsequently canceled their request for the German financial authority BaFin to release that money held by the European-Iranian Trade Bank.[6]
