US Sanctions And Foreign Insurers: Will Iran Soon Be Open For Business?

For the past five years, non-US insurers have faced a growing array of US-Iran "secondary sanctions". Most non-US insurers are keenly aware of the risks of violating these sanctions, including potentially having their US assets frozen and access to US banking cut off, thus preventing them from engaging in US dollar transactions. For insurers doing international business, this is tantamount to a death sentence

US-Iran secondary sanctions target a wide range of conduct, including providing insurance for:

• entities involved in the Iranian energy, shipping or shipbuilding sectors;
• sellers and suppliers to Iran of precious and certain non-precious metals (including steel and aluminum), and software used for integrating industrial processes;