German Bundesbank to help India process oil payments

Dow Jones Newswires

Germany's Bundesbank is set to help India process payments for Iranian oil, despite international sanctions against the regime in Tehran, German newspaper Handelsblatt reports, citing government and financial sources.

Germany's foreign and economic ministries have already ratified the arrangement, under which India would transfer an estimated EUR9 billion to the Bundesbank to fund Iranian oil imports, rather than directly to Iran, Handelsblatt reports.

The Bundesbank would then transfer the money to an account at Hamburg-based lender Europäisch-Iranische Handelsbank, which would send it on to Tehran, Handelsblatt reports.

India's central bank said in February it wanted to process Iranian oil imports through the Bundesbank, following massive pressure from the U.S. to give up direct business relationships with the regime in Iran, Handelsblatt reports.

"We are in discussions", a spokesman for the Indian finance ministry confirmed, Handelsblatt reports.

The EIHB is on a list of institutions against which the U.S. finance ministry and the European Union want to see sanctions upheld, but the list isn't binding for the German government, Handelsblatt reports.

The Bundesbank declined to comment. The German foreign and economic ministries didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.