The US Treasury Department has given a sanctions violation notice to the US payment system MasterCard over an alleged credit card cooperation scheme with two blacklisted Iranian banks.�

The Treasury in a statement has announced that its Office of�Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has identified dormant MasterCard accounts at�Iran's Bank Melli and Bank Saderat which it has described as two blacklisted Iranian banks.

"As a large and commercially sophisticated company that deals primarily with�banks and other financial institutions, MasterCard should have identified and reported accounts, funds, and property and interests in�property," the release said.

The MasterCard accounts remained dormant and funds in�those accounts never reached any sanctioned individuals or institutions, according to�the release. Moreover, MasterCard cooperated with�authorities during�the investigation. As a result the Treasury�s enforcement was limited to�a "finding of�violation," with�no further penalties, the release continued.

The violations occurred prior to�the January 16 implementation of�an international nuclear deal with�Iran, which resulted in�sanctions against�Bank Melli being lifted, along�with most other economic sanctions against�the Islamic Republic.

Iran�s media reported in December that MasterCard has started to reach out to the Iranians by launching a public relations campaign in Persian in popular social media like Telegram.� This was seen as a move by the US payment services corporation to prepare to set its foot in the Iranian market.

Iranians under the current regime of US-engineered sanctions cannot use the services of the international electronic payment operators like MasterCard, PayPal, Visa and others.

This has significantly complicated not only individual foreign-bound payments by Iranians but also business transactions between Iranians and foreigners.

By Press TV