Confusion over whether Russia’s foreign bondholders will receive payments that were due on 16 March put the spotlight on the bank at the centre of it all: Citigroup.

The bank acts as the paying agent, charged with receiving and processing payments into bondholders’ accounts for the two dollar-denominated bonds issued by Russia. Russia’s Ministry of Finance said on 17 March that it had passed funds for servicing those bonds on to Citi’s London branch. Bondholders were owed $117m by 16 March.