US sanctions Russian payment system A7 over alleged Iran sanctions evasion

The US has added Russian payment system A7 to its Iran sanctions list, saying the network helped Iran bypass American restrictions. For high-risk PSPs, the point is not the headline charge alone; it is that OFAC is treating payment infrastructure as part of the sanctions-evasion stack, not just the merchants at the end of it.

1. The US Department of the Treasury said A7 was placed on the sanctions list for Iran because it allegedly facilitated the circumvention of US sanctions. Treasury described A7 as a “shadow banking system, linked to Russia and used by Iran… to evade sanctions.”
2. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also designated A7 as a “significant transnational criminal organization.” According to US authorities, the payment system provided financial support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hamas.
3. Alongside A7, the US imposed sanctions on companies operating in Iran’s automotive and railway sectors. The list also included individuals and legal entities from Iran, China, the UAE, Indonesia, Germany, and Turkey.
4. In practical terms, designation means assets of the listed parties in the US are frozen, and US citizens and companies are prohibited from doing business with them. For PSPs, that usually means a hard stop on onboarding, processing, settlement, and any indirect exposure through counterparties.