Swift separated the Iranian banks in a few days

Gottfried Lebrant, chief executive of SWIFT for the messaging system, based in Belgium, said he would separate some Iranian banks from his system earlier this week.

"The decision is commercial and will not affect all banks," he told a French-German business conference in Paris, adding that the list of banks would be published at the end of the week after the banks were notified.

Bian Swift said the suspension of Iranian banks' access to the messaging system was "unfortunate", but "taken in the interests of stability and integrity of the global global financial system."

The US government has informed Swift that it is waiting for them to comply with the sanctions and that they may face Washington sanctions if they do not comply.

Swift is not allowed to do so under EU law known as the Blocked Act, which could expose European sanctions if it complies with US law.

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