Stanislav Lazarev, Deputy General Director for Sales at A7, believes that the cross-border payments ecosystem will shift toward independent solutions, including digital assets, as participants seek to complete these disbursements while avoiding secondary sanctions imposed by Western countries.
Key Takeaways:
To bypass sanctions, A7 says 85% of trades use friendly currencies, pushing independent rails in 2 years.With 10,000 partners, A7 handles 20% of Russian settlements and has developed alternative digital assets.Despite challenges, the A7A5 token moved $100B for sanctioned groups, driving digital cross-border trades.The sheer number of sanctions Russia is facing from both the U.S. and the EU has led to changes in its payment rails and structures, helping Russian companies navigate the newfound intricacies of a limited cross-border settlement ecosystem.
Stanislav Lazarev, First Deputy General Director for Sales at A7, stressed that he believes that this new state of the standard fiat payment system will force a change to implement independent solutions in the next two years.
Lazarev expects this new structure to shift from the default system toward alternatives, which might include bills of exchange and more modern solutions like digital assets.
A7, founded in 2024, has over 10,000 trade partners that rely on its services to expedite payments, and according to estimates, it intermediates nearly a fifth of the Russian international settlements market.
