VZCZCXRO9544
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK
DE RUEHMD #0418 1071121
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 161121Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4607
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000418
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EEB/ESC AND EUR/WE
TREASURY FOR DEPUTY SECRETARY KIMMITT AND IA/OEE/W.LINDQUIST
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/16/2018
TAGS: EFIN IR KTFN SP
SUBJECT: BANCO SABADELL SUSPENDS IRAN REPRESENTATIONAL
OFFICE AFTER TREASURY, POST ENGAGEMENT
REF: A. MADRID 308
B. MADRID 286
Classified By: Ambassador Eduardo Aguirre for Reasons 1.4(d) and (e)
1. (SBU) On April 14, post received a letter from Banco
Sabadell President Jose Oliu announcing that Sabadell had
decided on March 31 to suspend all activities of its Iran
representational office. Para 3 contains an informal
translation of the letter, which responded to a letter post
had sent Oliu the previous week containing information from
Treasury about certain Iranian banks.
2. (C) Comment: The suspension follows active USG engagement
on the issue. Ref B reported visiting Treasury Deputy
Secretary Kimmitt's March 6 conversation with Oliu about
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Iran. It also reported that the Central Bank had discussed
Iran with Sabadell after the Deputy Secretary's Central Bank
meeting the previous day. Ref A contains information
provided at that time by Sabadell to the Central Bank about
its ties with Iran. Sabadell later provided additional
information (emailed to Treasury) about its ties to Iran as a
result of post's followup inquiries. End Comment.
3. (SBU) Informal translation of text of letter:
Having received your letter this past April 8 via fax, I
would like to ask you to pass on my appreciation to Deputy
Secretary of the Treasury Robert Kimmitt for the information
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submitted.
As we had the opportunity to discuss, Banco Sabadell has
followed to the letter all of the designations that the UN,
the European Union, the (FATF), and the U.S. have been
establishing in the field of terrorism. In following them,
the bank has also implemented all the controls and
precautions necessary for compliance: cancellation of
operations with persons and entities included in the
published lists, among others Bank Melli and Bank Mellat in
which we blocked their operations as of the beginning of the
last quarter of 2007, additionally, establishment of
reinforced controls of our knowledge of clients, special
monitoring of operations with Iran, to the point of limiting
operations to transactions with only those Banco Sabadell
clients who were extremely well-known and that (Note: the
transactions) were subjected to special scrutiny in terms of
the Iranian party, knowledge of the commercial relations and
the affected goods.
In addition to the above, I request that you inform Mr.
Kimmitt that on March 31, Banco Sabadell decided to suspend
all activities of the Iran representational office, and as a
consequence, any transaction or operation with the Iranian
banking system (maintaining open only those obligations
previously contracted by Banco Sabadell, which once expired
will not be renewed). To this effect, all of the SWIFT codes
and correspondent accounts with Iranian financial entities
have been annulled, thereby blocking the emission and receipt
of transfers.
I remain at your service and take this opportunity to send
you my attentive regards,
Jose Oliu Creus
President
Banco Sabadell
AGUIRRE