Dog lover bitten by Iran sanctions – media – RT World News
Finnish woman had her bank account frozen after trying to pay for insurance for her pet
A woman in Finland has triggered automatic sanctions from the country’s Financial Supervisory Authority after mistaking payments made to an animal insurance company for a financial transfer to Iran, local media reported on Wednesday. Tehran is currently under EU-wide economic sanctions, which ban most financial transfers.
According to a report by Finnish outlet Yle, the dog’s owner tried to wire a €600 ($643) payment into Minni Munne’s account to settle an insurance bill, after her dog, Ira, needed emergency care during childbirth.
But in the field of online transfer, the banking system confused the term “Ira insurance” (“Iran vakuutus” in Finnish) with “Iran insurance” – not only blocking the transfer, but also freezing the entire account of Munna.
Munne had her account suspended for a week, Yle reported on Wednesday, forcing her to rely on support from friends to pay bills and other necessities.
“It is surprising that there was no warning about this”, Munne told the publication. “No calls or messages that the money transaction was under investigation. It all came as a surprise. Now I don’t know when this matter will be resolved.
Virtually all financial transactions to and from Iran are restricted by EU sanctions, with the exception of humanitarian cases. This also includes rules prohibiting the provision of insurance by companies from EU member states to Iran or Iranian-owned companies.
In most cases, the big banks use software to ‘screen’ financial transactions to ensure they don’t violate applicable rules or laws – a system which, according to the Financial Supervisory Authority of ‘Helsinki, is “operate in an exemplary manner”, reports Yle.
It wasn’t bad news for Munne, however, as Ira managed to give birth to six healthy puppies.
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