August 22, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 8, 1428

BERLIN, Aug 21: Dresdner Bank plans to join other German banks that have withdrawn from Iran, amid US pressure and excessive administration costs, the Financial Times Deutschland said in its Wednesday edition, quoting a bank spokesman.

“Dresdner Bank is ending its activities with Iran and in Iran,” the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying.

He said the bank was faced with excessive “bureaucratic expenses”.

A number of European financial institutions, including two other German banks, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, have also restricted dealings in Iran.

In July, Deutsche Bank closed all its personal and business accounts in the country. The FT Deutschland cited sources close to Deutsche Bank as saying it was not taking on any new business there and was trying to scale back its existing contracts.

After withdrawing physically from Iran, Dresdner would also wind down existing business as far as legally possible, the newspaper said, though export finance guarantees would be maintained until their expiration dates.

The FT Deutschland said Dresdner Bank’s 2006 lending in Iran amounted to the low end of the hundreds of millions of euros, and had fallen to double digits this year.—AFP