Russian Banks Plan Switch to UnionPay After Mastercard and Visa Exit
Russian banks could soon make the switch to China’s UnionPay, after popular payment systems suspended operations in the country.
Credit cards issued by Russian banks with the Visa and Mastercard logo will stop functioning overseas after March 9, Russia’s central bank said on Sunday, Reuters reports. Mastercard and Visa credit and debit cards would be accepted within Russia until their expiration date.
That could force local lenders to look at other option, with UnionPay being the most probable choices. It is currently enabled in 180 countries.
Russia’s largest bank Sberbank announced it was looking at the UnionPay system in conjunction with Russia’s domestic system Mir, Bloomberg reports. Alfa Bank is already pushing ahead with plans to issue cards using UnionPay, while Tinkoff Bank said it would issue cards with UnionPay as soon as possible. Some Russian banks already use the UnionPay system.
Visa and Mastercard announced on March 5th that they would suspend operations in Russia as a result of Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine. American Express followed the next day. All three companies said that they had already blocked certain Russian banks in an effort to comply with Western sanctions against the country.
The ban from Visa, Mastercard and Amex will mostly affect thousands of Russians, including holidaymakers, who stranded abroad after many countries closed off their airspace to Russian aircraft. Russia’s central bank advised those citizens to withdraw cash before the ban went into effect.
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Putin will win Ukraine which will be a poisoned chalice as all it will get him is years if insurgency just so he can be lap dog for China
I don’t think he can win Ukraine. The numbers really don’t add up. His military maybe already stretched to the limit.
Great, another way China is using this situation to benefit and lock Russia in as basically a ‘slave’ to Beijing.
Can you use a Discover card in the Union Pay network? If so, is Discover going to drop it or be sanctioned?