US sanctions Cuban state bank over services to Iran's Karafarin Bank

The US State Department on Thursday, 15 October 2026, sanctioned Banco Internacional de Comercio S.A. (BICSA), one of Cuba's state-owned banks. According to the department, the bank has provided financial services since at least 2022 to Karafarin Bank, an Islamic Republic bank that the US Treasury sanctioned in 2020.

The sanctions were imposed under Executive Order 14404, which Donald Trump signed on 1 May this year and which allows sanctions on those operating in the financial sector of Cuba's economy. Under the decision, the Cuban bank's assets in US territory are blocked, and foreign banks and companies that deal with it face secondary sanctions. The State Department did not disclose details of the services the bank provided to Karafarin Bank.

Marco Rubio: Cuba has become a base for hostile actors

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement, accused Cuba of helping the Islamic Republic and other US adversaries and said communist Cuba had been allowed to become a base for hostile actors and groups. He said Washington would keep working to dismantle Cuba's financial and security ties with the Islamic Republic and other hostile governments.

The move was announced alongside a new round of US Treasury sanctions against the Islamic Republic's financial networks under "Operation Economic Outcast"; the same day, an Iraqi bank and two banks operating in free zones were also targeted, and DIAR has reported the details of those sanctions. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said the siege around the Islamic Republic's economy is tightening.

The third Cuban state bank in four months

Banco Internacional de Comercio is the third major Cuban state bank to be sanctioned in less than four months. Before it, Banco Financiero Internacional (BFI), the financial arm of the military conglomerate GAESA, was sanctioned in June and Banco Exterior de Cuba in September this year. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the bank entirely legitimate and rejected the US decision.

The financial link between the Islamic Republic and Cuba is not new: in the first decade of the 21st century, Tehran extended nearly $700 million in credit to Havana. In recent months, Washington has been closing sanctions-evasion routes one after another by pressing banks in third countries, from Iraq to Lebanon; according to US State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, the Islamic Republic's ability to fund its proxy groups has been destroyed.

By sanctioning a third Cuban state bank, the US has closed another of the Islamic Republic's financial doors outside the region.