Bankers are racking their brains about how to get Visa and MasterCard working in Crimea before the season
Moscow - Kyiv, March 30 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - Servicing cards of American payment systems in Crimea, even through the National Payment Card System, is fraught with disconnection from Visa and MasterCard for Russian banks. Moscow is thinking about how to solve the problem before the high tourist season. It is possible that tourists will be able to withdraw money using cards at Rossiya Bank ATMs. There are only 157 of them in Crimea.
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Let us recall that Visa and MasterCard prohibited banks from using cards with their brands in Crimea, threatening with refusal of service. It was assumed that the problem could be solved by launching the NSPK from April 1 with the full launch of the National Payment Card System (NSPK): banks build direct channels with it, and card transactions go directly to the NSPK, bypassing Visa and MasterCard.
But it turned out that servicing cards of American payment systems in Crimea, even through NSPK, is fraught with disconnection from Visa and MasterCard for Russian banks. The leading banks are especially at risk - RNKB (678 ATMs) and Genbank (190 ATMs). And not only and not so much them, but the large Bank of Moscow, through which RNKB is connected to international payment systems, and the large Rosbank, through which Genbank works with them.
Now in Moscow they are thinking about how to solve the problem - after all, tourists will soon fly to Crimea. Experts believe that the only real option is to use Rossiya Bank ATMs (157 ATMs). Formally, Visa and MasterCard have already adopted sanctions against this bank, suspending servicing of its transactions on their cards. But from April 1, all card payments in the Russian Federation will go through the Russian NSPK system, and Visa and MasterCard will not be able to influence its operation, so Rossiya Bank could conduct “Crimean” operations. According to information "Kommersant" from two sources, the service of MasterCard cards in the Rossiya Bank network in Crimea is planned to be launched in the coming days. Under Visa, complete transfer of processing will occur within one to two months.
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