Iran’s biggest bank has been hit by sanctions many times over the past 20 years. On Monday, the Trump administration targeted it again, aiming to eliminate its ability to operate abroad.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent vowed to punish countries that do business with Iran as part of Operation Economic Outcast, intensifying the administration’s economic war on Tehran.
One of his few specific demands took aim at Bank Melli’s foreign operations. “Every Bank Melli branch must be shuttered and dark,” he said.
Waves of sanctions have already severely limited the bank’s ability to do business abroad, mirroring Iran’s broader economic isolation.
The state-owned bank has faced rounds of bruising financial penalties at least since the United States formally accused it in 2007 of funding Tehran’s nuclear and missile programs. Countries around the world, as well as the United Nations and the European Union, have also sought to curb the bank’s suspected use of foreign front companies to finance illicit activities.
In the United Arab Emirates, an employee who answered the phone at Melli’s branch in Dubai on Tuesday confirmed it was open for business.
And in London, the lights were on at the Melli branch in the affluent Kensington neighborhood. A sign at the front door directed passers-by to a side entrance, and a half-dozen people could be seen inside, although a reporter was turned away.
Bank Melli’s staying power relies on its backing by the Iranian government and the nearly 3,100 domestic branches it operates. It has long maintained an international footprint, as well, with branches elsewhere in the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Some countries, notably neighboring Iraq in 2024, have revoked Bank Melli’s operating licenses under sanctions pressure. Other governments, like Britain and the European Union, have imposed such severe restrictions that local branches, while still open, are mostly unable to move money or facilitate trade with Iran, which is at the heart of the bank’s foreign operations.
U.S. officials have long accused Melli of creating or otherwise using international companies as a cover to send and receive funds as part of Iran’s shadow banking network, worth an estimated tens of billions of dollars in annual trade. The Treasury Department asserts that the network was set up to evade economic sanctions, and funds Iran’s military activities and proxies.
In January, for example, Treasury officials accused businesses in the U.A.E. and Singapore of either acting as, or working through, front companies to funnel money to and from Iran through Bank Melli conduits.
“Bank Melli’s reach has certainly shrunk in recent years,” said Matthew Levitt, who was a top Treasury Department intelligence official under former President George W. Bush. “But it has been able to continue financing illicit activity through subsidiaries and selective enforcement in various countries around the world.”
For years, Mr. Levitt said, the U.A.E. played an “outsize role” as an illicit financing hub for Iran, facing more economic penalties for its ties to Tehran than any other country except China. Iranian-Emirati trade was worth roughly $28 billion in 2024, when the Emirates was Iran’s largest source of imports.
President Trump derided the Emirates this past winter as “like the banker for Iran.”
But relations between the U.A.E. and Iran have chilled this year, amid the air war waged against Iran by the United States and Israel. Iranian forces have launched drones and missiles at the Emirates and other countries that host U.S. military bases.
Last week, the U.A.E. said it would halt all trade and financial transactions with Iran, moving to accelerate pressure on Tehran as its economic crisis worsens by the day.
Iran’s finance minister, Ali Madanizadeh, predicted on Tuesday that many countries would refuse to accept Mr. Bessent’s demands, “either officially or unofficially.”
“Naturally, our enemies intend to launch an economic terrorist attack against us, but we have our own tools as well, and we know how to play the game,” Mr. Madanizadeh told Iranian state television.
In Britain, where Melli has operated since 1967, sanctions have “significantly curtailed” the company’s ability to operate and led to “material uncertainty” that the bank’s British business could continue as a going concern, according to its 2025 annual report.
Last September, Britain and the European Union reimposed sanctions on Melli, along with other institutions and individuals linked to Iran’s nuclear program. The moves hit Melli’s branches in London, Paris and Hamburg hard.
Melli’s British unit, which held about 100 million euros ($117 million) in deposits as of December, said in its annual report that it had shifted its focus from growth to “protecting the remaining assets of the bank.” The subsidiary employed 43 people last year, on average, and the bank laid off some employees “to align its cost base with its restricted business model.”
A woman who answered the side door at the Kensington branch refused to answer questions on Tuesday, as did a staff member answering the customer service phone line. A pair of uniformed police officers entered the building, stayed about 15 minutes, then left.
Vivian Nereim, Lynsey Chutel, Erika Solomon, Sanam Mahoozi contributed reporting.