Written question asked by Lord Hague of Richmond (Conservative) on Friday, 14 November 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 18 November 2008. It was answered by Ian Pearson (Labour) on Wednesday, 26 November 2008 on behalf of the Treasury.

Iran: Banks

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions since January 2007 the Government has received notification that the Central Bank of Iran and Iranian commercial banks have requested that their names be removed from financial transactions which involved UK financial institutions; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: I have been asked to reply.Discussions with international partners have repeatedly highlighted the risk of deceptive practices by Iran in support of proliferation sensitive nuclear activities, including stripping Iranian names from transactions to hide Iran's involvement. The UK Government are aware of this threat and shares these concerns. It would not be appropriate to comment on individual notifications.EU Regulation 1110/2008, concerning restrictive measures against Iran, which took effect throughout the EU this month applies a series of financial vigilance measures to all transactions involving Iranian financial institutions. These measures will guard against deceptive practices—including that of stripping Iranian names from transactions.In addition, the EC Regulation onWire Transfers (1781/2006) assists in accurately identifying the sources of such transfers by requiring that transfers of funds sent or received by a payment service provider in the EC shall be accompanied by complete information on the payer-name, address (or other identifier) and account number (or unique identifier allowing the payment to be traced back to the payer).

Secondary information