Türkiye Revokes Bank Mellat's Istanbul License, Ending 44-Year Presence

Türkiye's banking regulator has revoked the Istanbul branch license of Iran's Bank Mellat, closing out a 44-year presence in the country for the Iranian lender. The Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, known as the BDDK, published the decision in Türkiye's Official Gazette on Saturday.

The regulator acted under Article 71(b) of Türkiye's Banking Law. In its notice, the BDDK said the step was meant to reduce risks to depositors' rights, to fund shareholders, and to the security and stability of the financial system. The notice did not explicitly point to geopolitical tensions or to operational non-compliance as its grounds.

That absence of stated political motive is worth watching. The revocation arrives while Washington is pushing regional partners to enforce sanctions more strictly and to narrow Tehran's access to international financial channels, and the BDDK's language tracks the vocabulary of prudential risk rather than foreign policy. For banks and trading firms across the region, the practical effect is a narrower set of options for handling Iran-related business without inviting consequences from the US Treasury.

Bank Mellat is among Iran's largest lenders, and the Iranian government holds the single largest ownership stake in it. The bank has faced comprehensive sanctions from the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. The allegations behind those measures included the financing of state entities and military initiatives.

The Turkish decision followed a period of intensified US Treasury enforcement targeting cross-border trade and financial flows connected to Iran. Earlier this month, US authorities sanctioned the Turkish investment bank Golden Global Investment Bank, along with two of its subsidiaries. Those sanctions alleged financial facilitation tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In September, the US Treasury said Türkiye and Oman had decided to halt flights by Iran's Mahan Air.

All of these measures form part of Operation Economic Outcast, a Treasury campaign aimed at isolating Iran's economy. The initiative widens secondary sanctions into sectors including financial services, technology, aviation and shipping. It also increases pressure on regional trade hubs to meet Western compliance standards, on the logic that failure to do so risks exclusion from dollar-denominated global banking.

For Bank Mellat, the immediate result is the loss of a branch that had operated in Türkiye for 44 years, an exit recorded in a single gazette notice that cites depositor protection rather than diplomacy.