New Delhi, January 08: State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender, today said it is ready to facilitate payments for Iranian crude oil but is awaiting notification of a bank that is not under the US sanctions which can receive payments.
“Payments are not being routed (currently) because there is no arrangement (to receive money at Iranian end). Iranians have to line up a bank,” SBI Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive for International Banking Pratip Chaudhuri said on the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharti conference here.
SBI has refused to issue fresh Letters of Credit (LCs) to public and private sector refiners who import some 12 million barrels of crude oil from Iran every month after RBI clamped down on the main conduit Indian companies use for paying Iranian oil.
–Agencies