Citibank fined £4.7m in UK for breaching Russian sanctions

The United Kingdom has fined Citibank’s London branch £4.7 million ($6.35 million) for breaching financial sanctions against Russia. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) found that the bank processed 970 transactions totaling £19.7 million that violated sanctions regimes following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

These transactions involved sanctioned entities including the state-owned shipping company PJSC Sovcomflot and Russian banks such as Alfa-Bank, PJSC Gazprombank, and Credit Bank of Moscow. The regulator noted that operational failures, such as screening software failing to recognize Russian corporate prefixes and the use of unscreened internal lists, contributed to the breaches.

While the OFSI classified the severity as high due to the impact on UK foreign policy, it determined there was no deliberate intent to violate rules. Citibank received a 20 percent settlement discount for cooperating and voluntarily reporting the majority of the violations. A spokesperson for Citi stated the bank takes sanctions compliance seriously.