Move On From VISA And Mastercard Sanctions, This Is What Russian Banks Are Doing

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MOSCOW - The Central Bank of Russia has confirmed that banking institutions in its region that have been using the VISA and Mastercard payment systems will stop operating their credit card services as of Wednesday, March 9. Instead, a number of banks have decided to switch to the Chinese-made network of payment systems UnionPay.

Not only UnionPay, a number of other banks such as Sberbank and Tinkoff also take advantage of the domestically made Mir payment system. However, these Russian banks still allow the use of VISA and Mastercard credit cards issued in Russia, until the expiration of the card's validity period.

As reported by Reuters, Sunday, March 6, the Central Bank of Russia released this confirmation in response to the system freeze imposed by VISA and Mastercard on all banks in Russia that have been partners. The sanctions were imposed as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

As is known, the UnionPay system itself is a payment system from China which has now been used in 180 countries. Meanwhile, the Russian Central Bank is currently encouraging all Russian citizens who are abroad to immediately withdraw cash.

It is recommended that this step be taken immediately to anticipate the potential ban on transactions that may be carried out by banks outside Russia against Russian citizens.