Sepah Bank

Bank Sepah
بانک سپه

Type	Government-owned corporation
Industry	Banking, Financial services
Founded	1925 in Tehran
Founder	Iranian Army Pension Fund
Headquarters	Negin Sepah Building, Nowrouz Street, Africa Highway, Argentina Square, Tehran, Iran, Tehran, Iran
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Mohammadkazem Chaghazardi (Chairman and Managing Director)
Services	Credit cards, consumer banking, corporate banking, mortgage loans
Revenue	37,153,487 IRR (2014)*
Operating income	20,701,827 IRR (2014)*
Profit	490,892 IRR (2014)*
Total assets	500,319,226 IRR (2014)*
Total equity	72,427,585 IRR (2014)*
Number of employees	18,277
Subsidiaries	Bank Sepah International plc
Website	www.banksepah.ir
Footnotes / references * Amounts in IRR million

Bank Sepah (Persian: بانک سپه‎‎), the first Iranian bank, was established in 1925 (corresponding to 1304 in the Iranian Calendar). Its first branch, in Rasht, opened that year.

The bank also has branches in Frankfurt, Paris and Rome as well as a subsidiary, Bank Sepah International plc, in London. "Sepah" is the poetic Persian rendering for "Army". The Bank was named so because its capital was provided by the Army Pension Fund.

Sanctions were imposed on Bank Sepah by the United States on January 9, 2007 due to Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.[1] The United States claimed that the bank assisted Iran in developing missiles that could carry nuclear weapons. [2] and all its branches and subsidiaries in Italy, UK, France and Germany [3] will have their assets frozen by the United States in order to prevent Iran from constructing nuclear weapons.[4] The official website [5] of Bank Sepah in Iran reacted by mentioning the American resolution "fabricated statements based on purely hypothetical pretext, made out of political inducements" and promised that the bank will "continue with its efficient performance with due observance of internal and international regulations as before."

On the same basis, further sanctions have also been imposed by the United Nations through Resolution 1747 of 29 March 2007 coinciding with the arrest by the Iranian Government of some British army personnel in the Persian Gulf.