The U.S. Is Seeking To Cut Iran Off From The Global Financial System. It Is Targeting A Turkish Bank To Do So.

The Trump administration sanctioned a Turkish bank and two of its subsidiaries Friday, widening an economic campaign against Iran that is increasingly targeting financial institutions outside the country over their alleged role in moving Iranian money through the international banking system.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi, or Golden Global Bank, accusing the Turkey-based institution of facilitating tens of millions of dollars in transactions for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force. Two Istanbul-based subsidiaries, Golden Global Varlik Kiralama Anonim Sirketi and Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi Anonim Sirketi, were also sanctioned, The Associated Press reported Friday.

U.S. officials said Golden Global provided correspondent banking services that allowed Iranian financial institutions to move money internationally. The Treasury Department said the bank had knowingly offered those services for transactions involving accounts controlled by the Quds Force and its proxies.

Treasury also accused Golden Global of helping a network used by Iran to transfer proceeds from oil sales in China to Turkey, where money exchangers could convert the funds into cash and gold. The department said the network was part of Iran's wider shadow-banking system, which Washington says Tehran uses to move revenue abroad despite restrictions on its access to the international financial system.

The sanctions block any property and interests in property belonging to the designated entities that are in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons. Transactions involving the sanctioned entities are generally prohibited for U.S. persons unless authorized by OFAC, while foreign financial institutions handling certain transactions involving them can also face secondary sanctions.

Golden Global is Turkey's 35th-largest bank by assets and had not immediately responded to requests for comment, Reuters reported. The action also brings a Turkish financial institution into Washington's latest enforcement drive as Turkey, a NATO member, maintains economic and diplomatic ties with Iran.

Friday's designation falls under Operation Economic Outcast, the sanctions campaign Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled on Aug. 24 to target Iran's remaining sources of foreign revenue and the financial channels used to move that money. The administration has focused on oil sales, banks, money exchangers and companies it says help Tehran evade existing restrictions.

Bessent had signaled earlier this week that another financial institution was about to be targeted and said the administration planned a steady series of actions against Iran's banking connections. The Treasury secretary said Washington was initially concentrating on financial institutions and businesses dealing with the Revolutionary Guard.

The move against Golden Global comes one week after Washington targeted financial channels involving Iran in the United Arab Emirates. U.S. officials moved to restrict the UAE branches of Egypt's Banque Misr from accessing U.S. correspondent banking services after Treasury said those branches had processed about $1.8 billion in transactions for 103 companies potentially connected to Iranian shadow-banking networks between January 2024 and June 2026.

Banque Misr said it was reviewing the U.S. notice, while the UAE central bank launched an examination of the transactions identified by Washington. U.S. authorities also sanctioned the manager of Iran's Bank Melli branch in Dubai and a Hong Kong company accused of helping sanctioned Iranian entities gain access to the international financial system.

The expanded financial campaign has unfolded alongside the continuing war involving the United States and Iran, which has put additional strain on an Iranian economy already constrained by years of international sanctions. Iranian foreign trade has fallen sharply during the conflict, while inflation has accelerated and the country has faced mounting difficulty obtaining foreign currency.

Iranian oil exports, one of Tehran's most important sources of foreign currency, have also fallen substantially as Washington increased pressure on buyers and the financial and shipping networks used to handle Iranian crude. Exports had dropped to around 260,000 barrels a day from about 1.7 million barrels a day a year earlier, while inflation was running close to 70%.

Turkey has previously been at the center of U.S. investigations into efforts to move Iranian oil revenue around American sanctions. State-owned Halkbank was accused by U.S. prosecutors of helping Iran access billions of dollars in oil and gas proceeds through transactions involving gold and other mechanisms, a case that became a long-running source of friction between Washington and Ankara.

The latest Treasury action focuses on a different institution and a network that U.S. officials say continued moving Iranian oil proceeds through Turkey. Golden Global was sanctioned under Executive Order 13902 for operating in Iran's financial sector and for knowingly engaging in significant transactions involving that sector, while its two subsidiaries were designated because they are controlled by the bank.