US moves to cut off Swiss bank over Iran, Russia money flows
The US is moving to sever a small Swiss bank from access to the US financial system for its alleged support for Iranian and Russian actors, as US and Iranian officials hold indirect talks Thursday in Geneva over Tehran's nuclear negotiations. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a federal regulation Thursday that, if finalized, would prohibit US institutions from doing business with MBaer Merchant Bank AG, which has no relation to the larger Swiss bank Julius Baer.
The bank is accused of funneling over $100 million through the US financial system on behalf of criminals out of Iran and Russia. Founded in 2018, MBaer is both small and new as a bank. A banking profile in 2020 showed MBaer had roughly $245 million in assets, making it the 200th largest bank in Switzerland. But because it is small, the Treasury Department's announcement is notable because it effectively implies that a significant amount of the bank's overall business is tied to illicit money flows.
A Treasury readout of the new regulation states that MBaer “is a critical access node to the US dollar for a wide variety of illicit actors, putting US national security at risk and undermining the integrity of the US financial system.” Treasury alleges that since its inception, MBaer has enabled money laundering and facilitated corruption and terrorist financing.
