In an announcement put forth this past Saturday, the major financial services companies Mastercard and Visa have stated that they are going to be stopping all operations in Russia in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s choice to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Effective immediately, Visa will work with its clients and partners within Russia to cease all Visa transactions over the coming days,” stated Visa in a recent release. “Once complete, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any Visa cards issued by financial institutions outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation.”
The chairman and chief executive officer of Visa Inc., Al Kelly, stated in the release that the company was “compelled to act” because of the “unacceptable events that we have witnessed.”
“We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues, and on the clients, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia,” Kelly went on. “This war and the ongoing threat to peace and stability demand we respond in line with our values.”
Mastercard was right on Visa’s heels, however, when it released its own statement that emphasized that it was also suspending all of its operations after “the world has watched the shocking and devastating events resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
“It’s with all of this in mind – and noting the unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment – we have decided to suspend our network services in Russia,” read the statement from Mastercard. “This decision flows from our recent action to block multiple financial institutions from the Mastercard payment network, as required by regulators globally. With this action, cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network. And, any Mastercard issued outside of the country will not work at Russian merchants or ATMs.”
Mastercard went on to state that they did not come to this decision lightly and that for the duration of this suspension, they would make extreme efforts to be vigilant “to ensure the safety and security of the global payments ecosystem and our network.”
“Our Cyber & Intelligence teams will continue to work with governments and partners around the world to ensure that stability, integrity and resiliency of our systems continue to guide our operations and response to potential cyber-attacks,” continued the statements.
As reported by Reuters:
Visa also said this week it blocked multiple Russian financial institutions from its network in compliance with government sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Tass news reported that Sberbank Rossii PAO, Russia’s largest lender, said sanctions announced by Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc would not affect users of the cards it issues in Russia.