The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, said it had severed what it calls the Iranian regime’s critical financial lifelines in Türkiye. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Istanbul-based Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (a.k.a. Golden Global Investment Bank / Golden Global Bank) and two subsidiaries under Executive Order 13902, which targets Iran’s financial sector, as part of Operation Economic Outcast.

Also named: Golden Global Varlik Kiralama A.S. and Golden Global Portfoy Yonetimi A.S., both based in Istanbul’s Sisli district and described by OFAC as owned or controlled by, or acting for, the bank. OFAC’s Sept. 4 list update places all three on the SDN List under the [IRAN-EO13902] tag; the bank’s SDN entry lists a SWIFT/BIC of GOGYTRIS and an Esentepe / Buyukdere Caddesi address in Sisli.

Treasury’s press release says Golden Global Bank “was established for the purpose of enabling Iran’s rahbar network to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey, where it could then be converted to cash and gold by rahbar money exchangers.” It also alleges the bank “knowingly offered to provide correspondent banking services to Iranian financial institutions,” including activity tied to accounts controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps–Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and proxies linked to Turkish businessman Sitki Ayan — a network OFAC sanctioned in 2022 for moving hundreds of millions of dollars related to IRGC-QF oil sales. Treasury further says the bank and its subsidiaries “have facilitated tens of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions for the IRGC-QF.”

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent framed the designation as enforcement under the wider Outcast campaign:

“Financial institutions continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast… While we hope no more banks will need to be sanctioned, that ultimately depends on how quickly the international community comes to its senses and ceases support of the murderous Iranian regime. We know who you are, we know where you are, and we will continue to take action together with our allies and partners until we have buried the head of the Iranian snake.”

Bessent announced Operation Economic Outcast on Aug. 24, 2026, calling it “Economic D-Day” — a push to map and cut the shadow banking, oil-smuggling, and sanctions-evasion channels that Treasury says still fund the Iranian state and its proxies after years of comprehensive U.S. sanctions. Friday’s action is the latest public shot at foreign financial institutions that, in Treasury’s view, still plug Iran into dollar correspondent banking.

OFAC also issued Iran General License CC, titled “Authorizing the Wind Down of Transactions Involving Certain Persons Blocked on September 4, 2026,” giving counterparties a limited runway to exit deals with the newly designated entities. As with other SDN designations, U.S. persons generally must block property of the named persons and report it to OFAC; foreign banks that knowingly facilitate significant transactions for them can face secondary sanctions — including loss of U.S. correspondent access.

That secondary-sanctions lever is the real pressure point for banks outside the United States: executive order authority plus the threat of being cut off from the dollar system, applied in wartime to institutions Treasury says are still carrying Iranian oil and IRGC-linked cash. Whether more Türkiye- or third-country banks get the same treatment now depends less on new legislation than on how far Treasury is willing to push that concentrated sanctions power — and how quickly counterparties unwind.

AP and other wire reports confirmed the same-day designations of the three Istanbul entities. For the primary paper trail, use Treasury’s Sept. 4 release and OFAC’s recent-actions update below.

Sources