Denmark's Danske Bank A/S says it has stated talks with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on arranging credit to clients with business activities in the country.
"To a limited extent and within the international framework, we are open to supporting our clients with activities in Iran financially," a Danske Bank spokesman said in an email, as quoted by Reuters.
"We are in dialogue with Iran's central bank about this, but no deal has been reached at this point," he said.
On the same front, Reuters quoted a report by Iran's Financial Tribune daily in which a CBI official said that the bank had received $7.2 billion in financing from three foreign banks, including Danske Bank.
Major Western banks have been reluctant to handle Iranian linked transactions, despite hopes that last year's nuclear deal with world powers would enable Iran to re-enter the global financial system.
That lack of banking support has hindered other companies from picking up Iranian business despite it being seen as potentially a major new market for many Western firms, Reuters added.
Danske Bank announced last April that it had been negotiating with Iranian officials as well as the country’s banks for multiple months after the removal of sanctions in January 2016.
The bank said this was meant to establish both the internal and the external procedures that are required to be able to handle business with Iranian customers.
It also said that it was in the process of re-opening SWIFT connections with Iranian banks. Danske Bank also emphasized that it expects the demand for banking services such as clean payments, collections, letter of credits and guarantees involving Iran to rise in the near future.