Household HSBC Watch

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) — BNP Paribas SA and over two dozen European, Asian and African banks, including HSBC, are vying to arrange an estimated $50 billion of corporate loans in Iran. U.S. policies bar the world’s three biggest lenders — Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — from the market.

U.S. corporations can be fined as much as $500,000 for violating the sanctions. More than 30 companies have been penalized since January, including Bank of America’s Fleet National Bank, which paid $58,944 for holding bank accounts and allowing money transfers for Iranian interests, according to the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Citigroup and JPMorgan, both based in New York, are among more than 600 companies in USA Engage, a Washington-based organization that lobbies the U.S. government to lift unilateral sanctions on countries such as Iran and Cuba.