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Syrian Lebanese bank rejects U.S. sanctions

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:51 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

BEIRUT, Aug 17 (Reuters) - A Beirut-based subsidiary of Syria's state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, added to a list of U.S. sanctions targets last week, said on Wednesday it had done nothing illegal and was confident its clients would ignore Washington's measure.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank (SLCB)and its main shareholder, Commercial Bank of Syria, on Aug. 10, freezing their U.S. assets and barring them from doing business in the United States.

The move was part of escalating U.S. pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his repression of five months of street protests calling for his overthrow.

The Treasury said the Commercial Bank of Syria was targeted for providing financial services to Syria's Scientific and Studies and Research Center and North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank, which was listed in 2005 for the support of weapons of mass destruction proliferation.

Rejecting what he called unfounded political allegations, SLCB chairman Doureid Ahmed Dergham said the bank's activities were overseen by Lebanese regulators.

"SLCB is a Lebanese institution fully governed and controlled by the Central Bank of Lebanon and subject to supervision of the regulatory authorities," he said in a statement.

The bank had "never had any operation with neither a North Korean nor Iranian entity" and denied any accusation of "any illegal activity with any suspected country".

Dergham said SLCB's correspondent banks and clients knew there was no evidence the bank had done anything wrong and he was confident they would ignore "those unfair sanctions".

Last week's measures against SLCB, Commerical Bank of Syria and the country's biggest mobile phone operator were the fifth wave of U.S. sanctions aimed at pressuring Assad to halt a military crackdown on five months of protests.

SLCB doubled its net profit last year to $20.2 million, according to figures on its web site. (Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Maria Golovnina)