It has been reported May 19th 2014 that HSBC officials recently discovered that the branch’s landlord is an Iranian state corporation, subject to US sanctions.

The branch last year paid £192,402 in rent to the state-controlled National Iranian Oil Company, which owns the building, and another £30,000 in the first quarter of 2014.

While HSBC could in theory ask the United States [US] for authority to continue the arrangement, which goes back to at least 2005, it is not prepared to take that risk, given sensitivity to any potential infringements of the deferred prosecution agreement it has entered with the US.

Evidence of a problem first came to light in a US filing by HSBC this month, when it revealed it held a lease on an unnamed London property and was “considering all options available under the lease”.

It is reported that HSBC declined to comment beyond the information in its US filing.