Dresdner Bank pulls out of Iran

CNNMoney.com

FRANKFURT - (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Allianz SE unit Dresdner Bank is withdrawing from Iran completely because of pressure from the US government and administration costs, according to an excerpt from tomorrow's Financial Times Deutschland (FTD), which cited a Dresdner Bank spokesman.

The US government has accused Iran of supporting terrorist groups and has been trying for years to cut off international finance to the country. A number of European institutions, including Commerzbank AG and Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) AG, have already stopped dollar clearing with Iranian banks.

In July, Deutsche Bank closed all its personal and business accounts in Iran. FTD cited sources close to Deutsche Bank as saying it is not taking on any new business there and is attempting to scale back its existing contracts.

The newspaper cited a source close to the matter as saying that Dresdner Bank, too, is now putting a stop to its transactions with Iranian state companies and gradually closing down personal and corporate accounts there. Existing business is being wound down, as far as legally possible, FTD said, although export finance guarantees will be maintained until expiry.

FTD said Dresdner Bank's 2006 lending only ran to the low end of the hundreds of millions of euros, and has fallen to double digits.