Visa and MasterCard stopped their services in Russia

International card issuers MasterCard and Visa have announced that they will suspend operations and cut off all Russian banks from their payment systems due to sanctions related to Russian attacks in Ukraine.

However, cards issued by Russia will continue to operate inside the country as all local payments are processed through the National Card Payment System (NSPK), which was established in 2014.

Visa announced Saturday night that it had “immediately” begun “working with customers and partners inside Russia to stop all visa transactions in the coming days.”

“We regret the negative impact this has had on our valued partners and our customers, partners, businessmen and cardholders that we serve in Russia,” said Elle Kelly, Chairman and CEO of Visa.

MasterCard made a similar decision following “its recent move to block several financial institutions from the MasterCard payment network, as requested by global regulators.”

“Given the unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment – we have decided to discontinue our network services in Russia,” the company said in a statement.

According to the report, an unprecedented wave of Western sanctions against Russian banks, companies, companies, media, senior officials and lawmakers is in response to the country’s war against Ukraine.

Tasnim