India’s largest bank, State Bank of India, has told local refiners that it will no longer handle payments for oil imports from Iran beginning in November, the head of finance at Indian Oil Corp (IOC) told Reuters on Friday. According to IOC and other refiners, the companies in India currently use the State Bank of India (SBI) and Germany-based Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH) to purchase oil from Iran in euros. “[Oil] loading will be affected from end-August under the current mechanism unless a new payment route is established,” IOC’s finance chief A.K. Sharma told Reuters in a telephone interview today. Speaking to India’s Economic Times , Sharma said: “Once the current payment channel is blocked, supplier [Iran] has to decide if it wants to trade with us in rupee or sell oil on credit in anticipation of channels re-opening in future.” Iran currently offers a 60-day credit period for […]