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Türkiye's state-owned lender Halkbank announced on Wednesday that a U.S. federal court has approved the dismissal of the criminal case that had accused the bank of helping evade sanctions on Iran. The decision brought nine years of legal proceedings to an end.
The bank disclosed that the order was approved during a conference at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. "With the court's decision, the criminal case against our Bank that has been going on in the United States for years has been definitively and conclusively closed," Halkbank stated in a public disclosure.
The bank added that it intends to carry on its activities in a "powerful, trustworthy and uninterrupted manner" and continue contributing to economic growth.
The court's decision follows a Deferred Prosecution Agreement signed between Halkbank and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York that took effect in mid-March, setting out the conditions for ending the long-running case.
Under the agreement, Halkbank was required to complete a series of compliance-related obligations. The bank previously disclosed that an independent compliance report had been submitted on time to both the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
After reviewing the report, federal prosecutors and Halkbank jointly asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to dismiss the case, filing a motion on June 10.
The agreement does not require Halkbank to admit wrongdoing, nor does it require the bank to pay any criminal, civil or administrative fines, the bank previously said.
Commenting on the ruling, Halkbank General Manager Recep Suleyman Ozdil said the outcome reaffirmed the bank's compliance framework and commitment to national and international financial regulations.
"This decision will allow us to focus on our activities with greater predictability and higher motivation," Ozdil said. "We expect this development to increase our access to foreign funding, advance our existing relationships with correspondent banks and deepen our cooperation with international financial institutions."
He added that confidence in the bank among international investors and the broader financial community is expected to increase steadily, alongside growing interest in its services, helping diversify funding sources and support its growth plans.
"This will allow us to put more resources from international markets at the service of the real economy and further increase our support for production, investment, employment and exports," Ozdil concluded.
The origins of the case date back to 2017, when former Halkbank deputy general manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla was convicted by a U.S. jury on charges related to helping Iran circumvent U.S. sanctions.
Building on that investigation, U.S. prosecutors indicted Halkbank in 2019, accusing the lender of participating in a scheme that allegedly allowed Iran to access billions of dollars in restricted funds through the global financial system.
Halkbank denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty. The bank also challenged the case on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that as a state-owned institution, it should be immune from prosecution in U.S. courts.
The dispute moved through several levels of the U.S. judicial system, including the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2023 that Halkbank was not automatically protected from prosecution under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The bank continued its legal challenge, but the Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal in October 2025, allowing the prosecution to move forward.
The case remained a recurring point of tension in U.S.-Türkiye relations, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly criticizing the prosecution and raising the issue during talks with U.S. officials.
After meeting Trump in Washington in September 2025, Erdogan said the U.S. president had told him that "the Halkbank problem is finished for us," although he noted that legal procedures still needed to be completed.
Founded in 1938, Halkbank is Türkiye's third-largest state-owned lender, with total assets of €85.4 billion ($99 billion) at the end of 2025, according to official figures. Following the court's decision, Halkbank shares on Borsa Istanbul climbed as much as 8% before paring some of those gains.
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