Fri Jul 6, 2007 1:38pm ET145
HAVANA, July 6 (Reuters) - ING Groep NV, whose joint venture with Cuba
was blacklisted by the United States last year, will close down its
banking operations in Havana, a spokesman for the Dutch financial group
said on Friday.
ING , the first major Western bank to set up business in Communist Cuba
in 1994, said the closure of its representative office was not due to
political pressure from the United States.
"It is a purely business decision ... it comes as part of our assessment
of the economic viability of our operations around the world," said
spokesman Nanne Bos in Amsterdam.
Business sources in Havana said the Dutch bank has lost business as Cuba
increases its exports of nickel to China rather than European markets
via Rotterdam.
Last July, the U.S. Treasury Department put the Netherlands Caribbean
Bank, an ING joint venture with two Cuban state-owned financial entities
chartered in Curacao, on a list of companies U.S. companies and citizens
cannot do business with.
The blacklisted bank was used by Cuba to pay for shipments of food
exports from the United States allowed under an exception to the trade
embargo enforced by Washington since 1962.
ING's departure follows moves by major international banks to close
Cuban accounts in U.S. dollars due to increased scrutiny by the United
States of companies doing business with states under U.S. sanctions --
mainly Iran, Syria, Sudan, Cuba and North Korea.
Last week, Cuba complained that Swiss banking giant UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote,
Profile , Research) and Panama-based Banistmo, owned by HSBC Holdings
Plc (HSBA.L: Quote, Profile , Research), refused to process Cuban
payments of its membership of the Latin American parliament.
In 2004, UBS was fined an unprecedented $100 million by the U.S. Federal
Reserve Board for helping Cuba, Iran, Libya and Yugoslavia swap old
dollar banknotes for fresh currency.
(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Amsterdam)
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