Deal offers faint hope for Iranian-Americans' banking woes

The nuclear pact could eventually help many Iranian-Americans who have struggled with red tape, shuttered accounts and even criminal prosecution to conduct bank transactions, although relief seems unlikely anytime soon.

As Washington tightened sanctions on nearly all trade with Iran in recent years, international banking transfers that most US citizens take for granted have become increasingly fraught for the approximately 500,000 US-based Iranian-Americans.

Iranian-Americans and their families seeking to send and receive remittances have been hard-hit, including students at US universities in need of tuition money from home, and those trying to settle estates of deceased parents in Iran.