MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) - The United States has imposed sanctions on VTB Bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, for helping Iran evade sanctions and sustain its support for terrorism.
VTB Bank opened offices in Iran, built banking ties with sanctioned Iranian financial institutions, and worked to move billions of dollars in Iranian assets.
Announcing the sanctions, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said, 'Under Operation Economic Outcast, Treasury will continue to target and disrupt those who provide material, technological, or financial support that allows the Iranian regime to sustain its terrorist enterprise.'
VTB is now among the most comprehensively sanctioned financial institutions in the world.
VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, has opened bank offices in Iran in recent years in order to formalize closer banking coordination with the Iranian regime and expand trade between the two countries. Over the past three years, VTB Bank has established correspondent banking relationships with sanctioned Iranian financial institutions and began taking steps to increase its presence in Tehran.
VTB Bank has taken steps to move billions of frozen Iranian assets and created a settlement system for national currencies through correspondent accounts in Iranian rials and Russian rubles with the goal of increasing bilateral trade.
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated VTB Bank under Operation Economic Outcast, which introduced greater secondary sanctions risk and an accelerated pace of enforcement for those who continue to do business with the Iranian regime.
The Treasury said it is meeting with global financial institutions this week to arm them with the information they need to shut down revenue streams and procurement networks tied to the Iranian regime, the IRGC, Iran's terrorist proxies, and their enablers.
Announced by Secretary Bessent on August 24, and dubbed 'Economic D-Day,' Operation Economic Outcast is severing the remaining economic lifelines that sustain the Iranian regime. Treasury has mapped the networks, facilitators, and financial channels that Iran uses to smuggle oil, evade sanctions, and fund terror. Working with partners across the U.S. government, the European Union, United Kingdom, Gulf partners, and others, Treasury is targeting any source of the regime's illicit revenue.
Treasury warned that any entity facilitating money laundering or sanctions evasion on behalf of Iran risks being cut off from the U.S. financial system. Treasury also emphasized on the secondary sanctions exposure for those who continue doing business with the Iranian regime and will accelerate the pace of U.S. enforcement.
Copyright(c) 2026 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2026 AFX News
