Companies will find that their business operations and assets in Iran are either uninsurable or subject to inadequate coverage and/or extraordinary insurance premiums because of the highly unstable and risk-laden political, legal, and business environment.

As the Financial Times reported in the early phase of the JCPOA, “the insurance market remains averse to new Iranian business given that facilitating trade with Iran remains illegal for US citizens and entities, thereby constraining trade further.”  Research from the law firm Clyde & Co “shows that 85 per cent of respondents at London-based insurance companies said US sanctions ‘negatively impact their risk appetite for Iran-related business….  Even those London based insurers with no US operations are very concerned about the remaining US sanctions,’ said Chris Hill, partner at Clyde & Co.  ‘Those sanctions are proving a strong disincentive to such insurers providing cover for permitted EU-Iran trade.’” 

The almost universal reluctance from private and public insurers to cover Iran trade has continued and deepened. In December 2022, Germany ended all export credit insurance for its firms, coinciding with a newly stated policy of “no more business as usual” from one of Iran’s biggest historical trading partners.