"We are confident we can reach an agreement with the U.S. before the end of the year," Jean Pierre Mustier said in a conference call on the company's second-quarter results.

He gave no details.

In 2011 UniCredit was subpoenaed by the New York county authorities over a series of past operations involving Iranian companies.

The U.S. Department of Justice then opened an investigation in 2012 to look into the extent to which the bank had met measures introduced by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

UniCredit has said it is carrying out its own internal investigation to assess past payments in U.S. dollars and its respect of the U.S. imposed sanctions.

New U.S. sanctions against Iran took effect on Tuesday, with President Donald Trump pledging firms doing business with Tehran would be barred from doing business with the United States.

(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; editing by David Evans)