Nigel Taylor, senior vice-president for Customer, Project and Structured Finance at Airbus urged European banks on Tuesday to overcome their wariness about financing export projects to Iran because of US sanctions.
"With this blessing, I can't understand why we only see the back of banks at the moment. Don't be afraid!" Taylor told a conference on export financing at the French Finance Ministry, Reuters reported.
However, the head of the French banking federation, Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, also on the panel, said the US legal framework regarding sanctions remained too uncertain for now.
"To be able to intervene, we banks need to have complete legal security and clarity," she said. "We're not there yet."
Despite the French banking official’s remarks, there has been growing international interest in trade ties with Iran since Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 finalized a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program and implemented it on January 16.
The comprehensive nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran after coming into force.