Trump aims sanctions at Iran ... Hong Kong bank customers get hit
Banking for companies that do business with Iran is about to get even more complicated – as some in Hong Kong and mainland China are already finding out
“The bank wanted to know if we are some criminal organisation,” Nair said. “Are we doing something with Iran?”
How China can benefit from anti-Trump sentiment in Iran
The bank was asking questions about a trip in September 2015, when Nair brought executives from a dozen multinational companies to Iran’s Isfahan Province as part of a two-week leadership programme. The programmes are held six times a year in different countries, at a cost of US$18,000 per student.
In Iran, participants developed business models to help Iranian farmers prolong the shelf life of apples, make jams or even perfumes from the fruit and identify markets for them.
Three years later, Standard Chartered began demanding “intimate details” about the trip: the airline Nair and his staff flew with, hotels they stayed in, places they visited, who their clients and Iranian contacts were, whether they paid in cash.