Three senior government officials have been added to the oversight body of Russia's A7 payment network, a change that followed the network's designation under U.S. sanctions and a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) proposal targeting fund transfers conducted through subagents.
First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev were added to the council, according to a statement from the government press office. The body serves as a platform where officials from government and business sectors gather to exchange views on matters spanning economics, finance, and technology, according to broadcast news coverage. Siluanov and Tsivilev were among those present when Manturov convened the body's opening session on Thursday, October 15.
Reports from one broadcast outlet linked A7's origins to Promsvyazbank (PSB), pointing to a 2024 arrangement through which the bank created the entity to facilitate payments between Russian companies and their overseas suppliers. According to A7's figures, roughly 80% of payments tied to Russian foreign trade now move through non-standard channels rather than conventional ones.
Figures released in August placed cumulative turnover tied to the A7A5 stablecoin — operating within the A7 Network ecosystem — at close to $140 billion, drawing on remarks attributed to PSB Chairman Pyotr Fradkov by a broadcast news outlet. According to data released by FinCEN, upwards of 180 separate entities handled A7A5 transactions totalling no less than $179.1 billion across the period spanning February 2025 to June 2026. Where Fradkov offered a single accumulated total, the timeframe underlying FinCEN's figures was bounded by a specific interval.
According to FinCEN, the A7A5 token is put into circulation by Old Vector LLC, a Kyrgyzstan-registered entity, with ruble holdings at PSB serving as its backing.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) moved on October 1st to impose sanctions on the A7 Network and designate it an organisation operating criminal networks across national borders. According to Treasury's account, the network functioned as a conduit for circumventing sanctions on Iran, with connected companies reportedly obscuring the ties between certain transactions and parties or sectors already subject to those restrictions. The department noted that the move extended work already carried out through A7 Network entity designations earlier that year.
Under the draft rule put forward by FinCEN, wire transfers and related fund movements handled by covered financial institutions would face restrictions when the counterparty is a subagent operating within the A7 Network. Public submissions will be accepted through 4 November 2026.
