© Reuters.
Russian Standard Bank and Pochta Bank have advised their international clients to withdraw cash from UnionPay cards due to expected disruptions in overseas transactions, following U.S. sanctions. The guidance comes as UnionPay, the Chinese alternative to Visa (NYSE:) and MasterCard after their exit from Russia in March 2022, is set to suspend its international services starting today.
The banks are refunding withdrawal commissions from November 2-3 to alleviate the impact of this operational disruption on their customers. Despite the anticipated interruption in international transactions, UnionPay cards and all other bank cards will continue to function within Russia’s domestic operations.
UnionPay, which claims to operate in 180 countries, has been facing user complaints about its limited acceptance at many foreign retail outlets and online stores. To counter this issue, Mir payment system cards are also accepted at specific retail outlets and ATMs in selected countries.
The directive to suspend UnionPay’s international services was issued by the US Department of the Treasury as part of a broader crackdown on Russian financial institutions. This directive targets “Bank Russky Standart” among others, encouraging clients to withdraw foreign currency before the November 3 deadline.
Other financial entities affected by these sanctions include Public Joint-Stock Company Joint-Stock Commercial Bank “Absolyut bank”, Joint-Stock Company “Post Bank”, and LLC “KHKF bank”. Domestic services within Russia for these institutions continue as normal despite the sanctions.
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