(Bloomberg) -- Banco Santander SA said an internal review of accounts that were reported to be secretly held by an Iranian petrochemicals company did not find any breach of US sanctions. 

Santander said it reached out to authorities in both the UK and the US about the issue, according to a memo to staff seen by Bloomberg News. The review came after a report in the Financial Times that said Iran evaded sanctions and covertly moved money around the world using the accounts at both Santander UK and Lloyds Banking Group Plc. 

The review found that Santander was never aware that the account holder was owned in a trust by an Iranian company facing US sanctions, according to the memo. The probe also found the account holder was not included on any sanctions list nor was the business owned by persons subject to sanctions based on a review of public records and the amounts transacted in the account were negligible. 

“We can state categorically that Santander has not found any breach by it of US sanctions against Iran in connection with these allegations,” Santander said. “Santander is acutely aware of its obligation to comply with all relevant sanctions regimes. In this case, both in the UK and across our global banking operations, we are confident that we did that.”

The account in question was closed in 2022 “for reasons unrelated to these allegations,” Santander said in the memo.

A spokesperson for Lloyds said last week that that the lender’s “business activities are conducted to ensure compliance with applicable sanctions laws” and “due to legal restrictions, we cannot comment on the submission of suspicious activity reports to relevant authorities when and if they occur.”

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