NIAC and PayPal Take Steps to Address Payment Concerns Within Venmo
The National Iranian American Council (“NIAC”) and PayPal Inc. issued the following joint statement regarding certain difficulties Iranian Americans were having using Venmo during the Persian New Year:
During the recent Persian New Year (“Norooz”), some Iranian Americans ran into difficulties while trying to send certain payments within Venmo, a peer-to-peer mobile payment service. Specifically, the use of specific keywords in the payment message – such as “Persian” and “Iran” – were triggering a compliance review by Venmo to ensure that the payments were not in violation of U.S. sanctions regarding Iran. These reviews delayed the processing of payments and required Venmo’s inquiries into the purpose of the payment.
Update on Account Closures at Bank of America
Bank of America has issued a response to NIAC’s request for the bank to stop closing accounts of Iranians located in the US. In its letter, Bank of America states that Iranian accounts are being terminated in order to uphold the bank’s “due diligence” obligations under US sanctions law.
NIAC Urges Bank of America to Halt Iranian Account Closures
NIAC expresses serious concern over the recent string of bank account closures at Bank of America that target Iranians and Iranian-Americans and urges Bank of America to halt all further account closures.