22/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - THE ECB defends its system of making cross-border payments. On Thursday 22 February, the European Central Bank (ECB) defended its system of making cross-border payments, while according to the Financial Times, the American Congress is preparing new sanctions against Iran aiming to put pressure on the ECB to make it do more to prevent Iranian businesses and banks from using the Target2 payment system to make transactions in euro. Underlining that the ECB respects the EU sanctions against Tehran, an ECB spokesperson quoted by Reuters said that the bank “ensures that no illegitimate transactions are cleared in Target2”, adding that sanctions are not an ECB competence. The banks using the Target2 system have at least one branch in the European economic area, are subject to European rules and must respect the sanctions in force against Iran. (CG/transl.fl)