Monday, Sep 06, 2010

(Recasts lede, adds detail, background.)

ABU DHABI (Zawya Dow Jones)--The United Arab Emirates central bank is studying the economic impact of United Nations sanctions against Iran and has asked lenders in the U.A.E. to declare remittances sent to Iran on a monthly basis, bankers said Monday.

In a memo dated Sept 4., the central bank asked lenders to report by Tuesday remittances in August, and said it intends "to run this exercise for just a few months," from August, according to bankers who received the memo.

The central bank said the exercise is meant "to contribute to studies being conducted to better understand the economic impact of the U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran," the bankers added.

The central bank didn't reply to requests for comment when contacted by Zawya Dow Jones.

The United Nations Security Council in June approved a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its controversial program of uranium enrichment. The U.A.E, a major trading partner with Iran and home to a large Iranian community, has increased its oversight of dealings with Iran since the new round of sanctions but officials have maintained that implementing the sanctions will not hurt the region's broader investment climate.

Last year, the volume of trade between the U.A.E and Iran totaled 31.02 billion U.A.E dirhams ($8.4 billion), according to data on the U.A.E. ministry of trade website.

Local newspapers cited a government official saying last month that the U.A.E. was discussing how to approach the sanctions. "There are a lot of legitimate transactions taking place and I think it is extremely important to have that balance right, between our international commitments on the one hand and also between the fact that a lot of the transactions that we do have are legitimate," said Anwar Mohammad Gargash, U.A.E. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, according to Gulf News.

On Monday, bankers said the central bank usually kept track of remittances, in general, every quarter.

"We usually give these statistics on a quarterly basis, but this time they want to particularly check the impact of sanctions so are asking for the information on a monthly basis," said one banker who declined to be named.

-By Nour Malas, Dow Jones Newswires, +97150 2890223; nour.malas@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Co.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-09-10 1039GMT