PAKISTAN'S ACTION ON BANK SEPAH

S E C R E T ISLAMABAD 002520 SIPDIS SIPDIS TREASURY FOR OTI -RLOEFFLER E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2017 TAGS: KNNP EFIN IR PK SUBJECT: PAKISTAN'S ACTION ON BANK SEPAH REF: A. STATE 60238 ¶B. STATE 40440 ¶1. (U) Classified By: Economic Counselor Mary Townswick for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶2. (S) On June 4 Econoff and Poloff spoke with Kamran Akhtar, Director, Disarmament Cell, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, concerning Pakistan's action in reference to Bank Sepah's (BS) and Bank Sepah International's (BSI) 1747 designation (Ref A). Akhtar stated that on March 25 the Ministry of Finance sent instructions to all banks in Pakistan to freeze any assets of BS and BSI. On April 3, the statutory notification was published in The Gazette of Pakistan. The banks reported back that there were no assets of either of these organizations in Pakistan. Akhtar did confirm Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and United Bank Limited (UBL) had correspondent banking relations with BS and BSI in order to facilitate fund transfers to the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), headquartered in Tehran; however, after the designation of BS and BSI, they were instructed to find a new bank through which to transfer funds. BODDE