Italy to send special mission of lenders to Iran
13/04/2016 11:36
* Italy signs dozens of trade deals with Iran this year
* Italy economy minister to lead new mission to Iran
* Iran still has no access to the U.S. financial system
By Steve Scherer and Antonella Cinelli
ROME, April 13 (Reuters) - Italy will follow up on billions
of euros of trade deals signed with Iran this year by sending a
special mission to discuss how to fund and process them, Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday in Tehran.
Speaking to industrialists on the second and last day of his
visit, Renzi said some 50 agreements between Italian and Iranian
companies "cannot remain on paper".
"The projects are there. They need to be realised," he said
in remarks broadcast by Italy's RAI state television. "The
priority today is financing."
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani made Italy his first stop in
Europe in January to drum up investment after Tehran rejoined
the global trading system in January thanks to a deal with world
powers to lift crippling economic sanctions in exchange for
limiting its nuclear activities.
Italy already took steps on Tuesday to ease financing for
companies building oil-and-gas and transport infrastructure in
Iran. Renzi said the delegation of financial institutions would
be led by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan.
On Tuesday, Italy signed seven deals with Iran, Iranian
state television reported. Renzi said another 12 were signed on
Wednesday. Some 30 others agreements were made in January.
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The deal to lift sanctions did not include Iranian access to
the U.S. financial system, which means Tehran still has trouble
processing transactions in dollars, the world's main business
currency and the dominant unit in the oil trade.
European banks are no longer banned from doing business with
Iran, but they remain wary after BNP Paribas was slapped with a
$9 billion U.S. fine in 2014 for violating U.S. financial
sanctions and other penalties.
Since January, Iran has struck agreements worth more than
$50 billion with countries including Italy, Japan, South Korea,
Russia, Germany and others involving trade, project finance and
other investment, but financial hurdles have kept significant
sums of money from flowing. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N16U5WD
Italy's banking lobby ABI said it met with the Iranian
central bank on Tuesday to consider "solutions to overcome the
complexities of Europe's ending of sanctions, but which are
still in force in the United States".
In its steps announced on Tuesday, Italy said its state-run
lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti would offer credit lines of 4
billion euros for deals in Iran's oil-and-gas and transport
infrastructure and export agency SACE would guarantee them.
A further 800 million euros in credit lines for small- and
medium-sized firms will also be offered, SACE said.
(Additional reporting by Francesca Landini in Milan; Editing by
Tom Heneghan)
((steve.scherer@thomsonreuters.com ; +39-06-8522-4369;))
Keywords: IRAN ITALY/