Wednesday 28 / October / 2026
Russian fintech company A7 has built a cross-border payment network that reaches the Middle East, China, Africa and Latin America, as Western sanctions push Russian businesses out of their usual banking channels.
A7 was set up in 2024 with the involvement of Russia’s state-owned PSB bank to deal with one of the biggest problems Russian companies faced after Western sanctions: how to keep paying and getting paid abroad.
Restrictions imposed by the US, EU, UK and their partners have left Russian importers and exporters with slower transfers, broken banking relationships and uncertainty over whether settlements will clear.
A7’s response was a network built on local financial infrastructure, several currencies and alternative payment methods.
China is its most important corridor.
According to A7 CEO Ilan Shor, the country accounted for 63 percent of the company’s payments in mid-2026, with the Middle Wast countries among its other leading destinations.
A7 says that in two years it has built payment infrastructure reaching more than 100 countries, with about 15,000 corporate clients and around 2,000 transactions a day.
The company says it handled more than 10 trillion roubles (close to $120 billion) in international payments in 2025, about 19 percent of Russian companies’ foreign-trade settlements. The figures have not been independently verified.
A7 has also drawn attention at the top of the Russian government. On Oct. 15, First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov chaired the first meeting of the company’s supervisory board, an advisory body of senior officials and business executives. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev, PSB Chairman Petr Fradkov and Shor took part.
Connecting new payment technologies with traditional banking
A7 is also exploring ways to connect alternative payment mechanisms with established international banking infrastructure.
On Oct. 13, the company introduced A7 International, a service designed to allow customers to settle overseas invoices using USDT, a dollar-pegged digital token, while beneficiaries receive conventional bank transfers.
Under the arrangement, customers can fund transactions through the TRON blockchain, with A7 arranging payments to recipients in US dollars, euros, Chinese yuan or UAE dirhams. Other currencies may be available by prior arrangement, according to the company.
According to the company, recipients are not required to hold digital assets or maintain cryptocurrency wallets, allowing them to receive payments through familiar banking channels.
A7 says the service charges a commission of 0.3 percent, with processing times starting from one business day, depending on the destination and applicable regulatory requirements.
However, the availability of such services remains subject to national financial regulations, sanctions restrictions and the compliance requirements of participating institutions.
For international financial markets, the broader significance of such developments lies in the growing convergence between emerging payment technologies and traditional banking infrastructure.
Africa and Latin America
A7 announced offices in Nigeria and Zimbabwe in 2025, its first move into Africa. It plans to expand into more than 20 countries across Africa and Latin America over the next two years while growing its Middle East business. The scale of its operations in some of the newer markets is unclear.
Competing with the banks
A7 describes its larger ambition as freedom of settlement in a multipolar world. Its rise highlights a fundamental tension: fintech newcomers promise faster, more adaptable transfers, while traditional banks rely on established banking practices and the ingrained habits of conservative customers who prefer to do business the way they always have. For traditional banking, A7's model is both an unwelcome challenge and a competitive signal. The next generation of international payments may be shaped not by one system defeating another, but by the contested convergence of both.
