Following the announcement by Visa and MasterCard to withdraw from Russia on Saturday, several Russian banks woke up on Sunday to announce plans to start issuing cards using the Chinese UnionPay card operator system.
International financial service providers Visa and Mastercard said they would suspend operations in Russia within the next several days due to the latest Western sanctions related to Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The drastic step makes the use of cards issued in Russia outside the country implausible. Likewise, cards that were issued outside of Russia will stop working in Russia.
Visa and Mastercard announcements follow similar move from several large corporations that have said they are cutting ties or trying to cut ties with Russia, including Shell, PayPal, Maersk, BP, Netflix, Intel, Airbnb, and General Motors.
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Russian banks are swiftly turning to China for an alternative. Sbernak, Russia’s biggest lender, Alfa Bank and Tinkoff have all issued announcements regarding the switch to UnionPay due to these latest developments.
Some of Russia’s banks, like Pochta Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and several other minor banks had been previously working with the UnionPay card operator’s system.
UnionPay, an international payment system founded in 2002, received international status in 2005. Headquartered in Shanghai, the company reportedly operates in more than 180 countries across the globe, including Switzerland, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Cyprus, Thailand, India, Israel, Portugal, Croatia, Poland, Serbia, Hungary and Austria.
Commenting on report of the switch to UnionPay on rt.com, a reader with the name Contrarian_Ed wrote;
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Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur
