Bank Tejarat
Bank Tejarat is a significant bank in Iran, headquartered in Tehran. It was formed in 1979 by merger of several institutions including Bank Bazargani, itself the domestic successor of the Imperial Bank of Persia since 1952.
History
Iran's Banks Nationalization Act was approved in 1979. Bank Tejarat was subsequently established to integrate Bank Bazargani together with five domestic commercial banks and six previous multi-nationality banks which were active in international and domestic fields.In 2009 the bank was partially privatized, with the Iranian state remaining as a minority shareholder.
In January 2014, the European General Court in Luxembourg ruled to annul the European Union sanctions in place since 2012 against the bank on grounds of supporting the Iranian nuclear program as there was inadequate evidence supporting the claim. Sanctions remained in place giving time for the EU to appeal the decision, or to re-impose sanctions on different legal grounds. In April 2015 sanctions were re-imposed on new legal grounds. All sanctions were lifted after the Iran's deal with the six world powers on the nuclear program resulted in the embargo being lifted. In 2017, the bank filed a compensation lawsuit at the European Court of Justice, which was dismissed in 2018.