UK fines Citibank London £4.7M for Russia sanctions breaches

Britain’s financial sanctions watchdog has fined Citibank’s London branch £4.7 million (US$6.35 million) for processing hundreds of payments that breached the UK’s sanctions regime against Russia. The penalty, imposed by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) and announced on September 2, 2026, relates to 970 payments with a combined value of approximately £19.72 million that were made to or for the benefit of designated Russian entities. The breaches primarily occurred between February and November 2022, in the period following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine when Western governments rapidly imposed a broad range of sanctions. However, some violations continued as recently as 2025. OFSI stated that the failings were “material and significant” and occurred across a wide range of business areas and systems within the bank. The regulator did not find evidence of intent to breach sanctions, characterizing the issue as a matter of broken controls rather than deliberate evasion. An investigation revealed several systemic failures.