The organization that operates the SWIFT financial messaging service announced it was suspending some Iranian banks' access to its system. The U.S. government had told SWIFT it expected the organization to comply with U.S. financial sanctions against Iran, and that SWIFT itself could face U.S. sanctions if it failed to do so. The European Union had sought to bar SWIFT from such compliance through its own blocking statute. The SWIFT statement said only that the decision was for the "stability and integrity of the global financial system."