Paris: Bpifrance, the country’s state investment bank, will finance investment projects of French companies in Iran from 2018, granting up to ¤500m ($598m) in annual credits, its CEO said in a newspaper interview yesterday.
“Excluding a force majeure case, we will be on their side in early 2018. We are the only French bank that can do it without risking US sanctions for a posssible breach of remaining embargo rules,” Nicolas Dufourcq told Le Journal du Dimanche.
The deal Iran struck in 2015 with six major powers lifted many sanctions against the country in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities and paved the way for international business deals.
But many banks have stayed away for fear of inadvertently breaking remaining US sanctions, which could lead to huge fines.
Because the BPI has no operations abroad, notably in the United States, it is not exposed to possible fines for US sanctions breaches.
