Unilateral sanctions by the US have cost Iran’s Bank Saderat a third of its foreign partners but its overseas operations remain profitable, according to the institution’s managing director.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Hamid Borhani said that of 600 foreign banks that used to do business with Bank Saderat before the US imposed sanctions in September 2006, some 200 had halted their transactions. The bank is the second largest domestically in terms of assets and probably the most active Iranian bank outside the country.