A Financial Times investigation published on 21 September 2026 revealed that thousands of Russian payments totalling $6.9bn were processed by major international banks through a fintech intermediary identified as A7. The scheme allegedly involved forged documents and was designed to circumvent sanctions oversight. Standard Chartered and Citigroup are among the institutions named as having processed payments connected to the operation.
The investigation identifies systemic vulnerabilities in anti-money laundering controls at major international financial institutions. According to the FT, the fintech platform A7 acted as an intermediary layer, with the forged documentation enabling payments to pass through compliance screening undetected.
Standard Chartered (SCB) and Citigroup (C) are the two banks directly named in the investigation as having processed payments linked to the alleged scheme, making them the primary institutional subjects of the reported compliance and regulatory exposure.
No official regulatory or governmental response to the investigation has been reported in the available cluster sources as of 21 September 2026. The FT's reporting draws on leaked data, with the broader implications for sanctions enforcement and correspondent banking oversight left to ongoing scrutiny by authorities.
Sources: FT Companies, FT Home