A spokesman of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ said, "We have received the order from the US court," to freeze $2.6bn of assets.
The New York District Court ordered Japanese BTMU, the core banking unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, to block up to $2.6bn in accounts held by Tehran and furnish details of those accounts.
The order comes from a 2007 ruling that ordered Iran to make payments to survivors and victims’ families from the 1983 bombing and is part of US efforts to secure payment for the damages.
"One of the reasons for the appeal is that the US court has ordered a freeze on assets in accounts not only in the United States but also in Japan, which is problematic under Japanese law," the spokesman said.
While admitting that the bank manages large number of transactions for trade with Iran, the spokesman declined to reveal details on how much or whose assets related to Iran were in the bank’s accounts.
