A7 talked about the changes in the international settlements market

The final architecture of international settlements will almost certainly be hybrid, said Igor Gorin, deputy general director of the A7 payment agent, in a column for Kommersant.

"The Western system, Chinese CIPS, national payment systems, central bank digital currencies, promissory notes, stablecoins, and agency networks will work in parallel. Not one solution will win, but a "network of networks", where the route for each transaction is selected according to a set of criteria: security, speed, cost, liquidity and sanctions resistance," Gorin said.

The market of payment agents in Russia is actively growing, the top manager emphasized. The isolated financial infrastructure is becoming multilevel: national payment systems and bridges between them, interstate projects based on central banks' digital currencies, and private settlement networks. There is no single universal route anymore, so the agent adjusts the configuration for each client and each transaction, he explained.

A7 was one of the first in the country to institutionalize the translation process, Gorin recalled. According to him, companies need comprehensive support, from payment infrastructure to control of new packages of sanctions and compliance. "At A7, we fully provide this service to the client so that the business can focus on its core business and not expand the staff of treasurers, financiers and other specialists necessary to support payments," he said.

Gorin called the reduction of commissions another change in the market with the advent of the A7. When the company entered the market in 2024, business commissions for cross-border transactions could reach 8-10%. The terms of the A7 were 0.3% plus VAT, which, according to Gorin, helped reduce commissions on the market to 2% on average. The company maintains a low commission even now, and also uses the Central Bank's exchange rate without additional surcharges, he added.