Global credit card giants Visa and Mastercard announced on Saturday that they were suspending operations in Russia. Some banks want to turn to China’s UnionPay network.
Russian banks announced on Sunday that they are working on issuing bank cards from China’s UnionPay network in response to the decision by the giants Visa and Mastercard to suspend their operations with Russia following military intervention in Ukraine. Russian Visa and Mastercard bank cards will no longer work abroad, and cards issued abroad will no longer work in Russia, the two companies said on Saturday.
To enable Russians to have payment cards abroad, Russian banks said on Sunday they are working on launching UnionPay cards, and Russia’s Mir system only works in a few countries around the world. “Sberbank is exploring the possibility of issuing Mir-UnionPay co-branded cards. We will announce the release schedule later,” Sberbank, No. 1 of the Russian banking sector, explained.
Rosbank, Raiffeisen, Alfa Bank
“We are already working on issuing UnionPay cards, China’s national payment system. With this card, you can make payments in 180 countries of the world,” Alfa-Bank also said in its Telegram account. According to Russian news agencies, Rosbank, Tinkoff-Bank, Raiffeisen and MKB have indicated that they are also working on this file.
Russia, especially its financial and banking sectors, has become the target of sanctions on a scale not seen since it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine to overthrow the government there. Economic sanctions against Russia have caused the ruble to fall and many foreign suppliers to leave the market, which in turn should spur inflation and cause shortages and panic.