VTB Bank

VTB Bank is one of Russia's largest financial institutions. The US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated it on 14 September 2026 under Executive Order 13902, alleging it opened a representative office in Tehran in 2023, built correspondent relationships with already-sanctioned Iranian banks, and created a rial-ruble settlement system to move frozen Iranian assets and expand Russia-Iran trade.

The designation extends Operation Economic Outcast, the sanctions campaign the US launched on 24 August 2026, to one of Russia's most systemically important banks. VTB was already under Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine; naming it separately for Iran ties puts its correspondent lenders in third countries on notice that continued dealings carry secondary-sanctions risk.

The designation came in the same week The White House signed no new Iran-related instrument itself, delegating the sanctions action to Treasury while a third House war-powers resolution passed 220-204 with no binding effect.