The US Treasury has added Istanbul investment bank Golden Global Yatırım Bankası and its two subsidiaries to the OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list, cutting off their US dollar clearing channels.

The three entities belong to the same network: the bank was established in October 2019, with SWIFT code GOGYTRIS; the asset leasing company Golden Global Varlık Kiralama was established in August 2022; and the asset management company Golden Global Portföy Yönetimi was established in January 2025. All three are registered at the same address in Şişli, Istanbul, and have been identified under Executive Order 13902 as operating in Iran's financial sector and engaging in significant transactions.

The US accuses the bank of being set up specifically for Iran's rahbar shadow banking network, transferring oil revenues from China to Turkey, and then converting them into cash and gold through currency dealers. The Treasury stated that it knowingly provided agency banking services to Iranian financial institutions, with transactions running through accounts controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, amounting to tens of millions of dollars.

The named chain includes Turkish businessman Sıtkı Ayan and his companies, who were sanctioned in 2022. At that time, the US indicated that Ayan's network was responsible for transferring hundreds of millions of dollars from oil sales for the Quds Force. This action is part of the "Economic Exile Operation" launched on August 24, which had just restricted Egypt's Banque Misr's branch in the UAE a week prior. The Treasury also issued a general license allowing relevant legal transactions to be concluded by September 19.

Golden Global denies all allegations, stating that the individuals and institutions on the list have never been, nor are they currently, clients, claiming compliance with Turkish and international regulations, and will take legal action against the US measures. The bank is rated as Turkey's 35th largest bank, with an asset share of less than 0.1%, and is a private Islamic investment bank. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that financial institutions will understand the seriousness of the actions in a painful way and indicated that another bank may be targeted next week.

In market mechanisms, this is a sanction-driven cut-off of clearing rights, not normal interbank trading. The US is selling access to dollar channels while buying the risk premium of other small and medium banks for Iranian oil payments; funds are forced back from convertible dollar agency banks to gold, cash, and third-country shell companies. The beneficiaries are clearing banks and compliant investment banks that can still use the dollar system, while the pressured parties are Iranian foreign exchange channels relying on Chinese oil payments, Turkish conversions, and agency banks, as well as any foreign banks continuing to transact with the listed entities.

Source: Public Information