U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds a press conference in the Treasury Department’s cash room announcing new sanctions against Iran on August 24, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Mehmet Ethel | Anadolu | Getty Images
The Treasury Department on Friday announced sanctions against a small Turkish investment bank and two of its subsidiaries over what the United States accuses of funding Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
The action against Golden Global Bank makes it the second financial institution to be targeted in Operation Economic Purge, the Trump administration’s attempt to isolate Tehran by imposing sanctions on its business partners.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement: “We hope that there will be no need for further bank sanctions, but ultimately it will depend on how quickly the international community comes to its senses and stops supporting the brutal Iranian regime.”
“We know who you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to work with our allies and partners until we bury the head of the Iranian snake,” Bessent said.
Golden Global Bank did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
President Donald Trump has touted the sanctions operation as an “economic D-day” of unprecedented scope and intensity, but the Treasury Department has so far taken few steps to implement the plan since the sanctions were imposed on August 24.
The United States has yet to take concrete action against China, Iran’s largest trading partner and largest oil buyer. While Bessent insists that Beijing is not exempt from potential sanctions, he also rejects the idea that the plan will only work if China participates. Some geopolitical experts are skeptical that the United States will risk upending its fragile relationship with China, at least not before Trump meets Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.
Friday’s sanctions move targets Turkey’s 35th largest bank with 2025 assets worth approximately $517 million in current dollars, according to TheBanks.eu.
A week earlier, the Treasury Department moved to impose sanctions on the UAE branch of an Egyptian bank over its financial ties to Iran. The European Union has expressed support for Operation Economic Exile and officially joined the campaign this week.
The new sanctions target Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonym Silketi and its subsidiaries Golden Global Valrik Kilalama Anonym Silketi and Golden Global Portfolio Yonetimi Anonym Silketi.
The companies “facilitated transactions worth tens of millions of dollars” for the Revolutionary Guard’s expeditionary force known as the Quds Force and “provided the Iranian regime with access to key correspondent banking operations to move funds internationally,” the Treasury Department said in a press release.
According to the Treasury Department, Golden Global was “created to enable Iran’s Rahbar network to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where they can be exchanged for cash and gold by Rabar money exchangers.”
The ministry said the bank “deliberately offered to provide correspondent banking services to Iranian financial institutions.”
