China is one of 32 central banks in a group that released a statement last week, saying there would be further restrictions on Iranian banks if no action is taken on nuclear proliferation and terrorist financing.
The Financial Action Task Force had been asked to identify ‘unco-operative’ jurisdictions by the G20. On Tuesday, the US Treasury reiterated its interest in sanctions against Iran’s central bank. Read more
The US, Britain, France and Germany are trying to convince Russia and China to agree to blacklist Iran’s central bank and firms linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps, in a new round of UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program. Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security council, which means they can – and do – veto resolutions.
Such sanctions could hurt Iran’s energy market. The government has allowed for up to €5bn euro bond issues by the oil ministry to help finance development of the country’s oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. Read more
Iran’s central bank governor says the country gained about $5 billion by shifting its foreign currency reserve basket from the US dollar to the euro, reports AFP. Mahmoud Bahmani was quoted by Iran’s state television as saying that ‘so far, we have seen a $5 billion benefit from shifting the (currency) basket to the euros from the dollar.’ He did not elaborate. Earlier this year, Iran said it was switching to the euro for its crude oil sales, which account for about 80 percent of its foreign income. Read more
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Chris Giles has been the economics editor of the Financial Times since 2004. Based in London, he writes about international economic trends and the British economy. Before reporting economics for the Financial Times, he wrote editorials for the paper, reported for the BBC, worked as a regulator of the broadcasting industry and undertook research for the Institute for Fiscal Studies. RSS
Michael Steen, Frankfurt bureau chief, covers the ECB and the eurozone's economies. He joined the Financial Times in 2007 as Amsterdam correspondent and later worked as a front page news editor in London. Before joining the FT, he spent nine years as a correspondent at Reuters, mostly in foreign postings that included a previous stint in Frankfurt, as well as Moscow, Kiev and central Asia. He read German and Russian at Cambridge.RSS
Robin Harding is the FT's US economics editor, based in Washington. Prior to this, he was based in Tokyo, covering the Bank of Japan and Japan's technology sector, and in London as an economics leader writer. Robin studied economics at Cambridge and has a masters in economics from Hitotsubashi University, where he was a Monbusho scholar. Before joining the FT, Robin worked in asset management and banking. RSS
Ralph Atkins, capital markets editor, has been writing for the Financial Times for more than 20 years following an economics degree from Cambridge. From 2004 to 2012, Ralph was Frankfurt bureau chief, watching the European Central Bank and eurozone economies. He has also worked in Bonn, Berlin, Jerusalem and Brussels. RSS
Claire Jones is Money Supply economics team writer, based in London. Before joining the Financial Times, she was the editor of the Central Banking journal and CentralBanking.com. Claire studied philosophy and economics at the London School of Economics. RSS
