Visa, Mastercard Announce Suspension Of Russian Operations

Visa and Mastercard have announced they will suspend all operations in Russia in protest at its invasion of Ukraine.

But Russia’s major banks, including state-backed Sberbank, have already downplayed the impact the move will have on consumers.

Shoppers will still be able to use Mastercard and Visa-branded cards for purchases within Russia until they reach their expiry dates.

But cards issued abroad will no longer work at businesses or ATMs in Russia.

Clients will no longer be able to use their Russian Visa or Mastercard-linked cards abroad or for international payments online either.

Together, the two companies control about 90% of credit and debit payments in the world, outside of China.

Russia’s central bank insisted, however, that all Visa and Mastercard bank cards issued by Russian banks would continue to operate normally on Russian territory.

That is because domestic payments in Russia are made through a national system and don’t depend on foreign systems.

Russia’s biggest state-backed bank, Sberbank, said its cards would still work “to withdraw cash, make transfers using the card number, and for payment at offline as well as at online Russian stores”.

Since 2015, the Russian government has required all domestic payment transactions in the country be processed there.

This followed similar suspensions of operations by Visa and Mastercard in Crimea, following its annexation.

Several Russian banks suggested that they would start issuing cards that use the Chinese UnionPay system, coupled with Russia’s Mir payment network, to avoid any impact for consumers.