Russian banks turn to the Chinese UnionPay network

To respond to the decision of the giants Visa and MasterCard to suspend their operations with Russia After the military intervention in UkraineOn Sunday, Russian banks announced that they are working on issuing bank cards from the Chinese network Union Pay.

The two companies announced on Saturday that Russian Visa and MasterCard bank cards will no longer be valid abroad, and cards issued abroad will no longer work in Russia. So that Russians can get payment cards abroad, Russian banks have announced that they are working on the release of UnionPay cards, and the Russian Mir system works only in a few countries in the world.

The Russian banking system has been affected by economic sanctions

“Sberbank is working on the possibility of issuing co-branded Mir-UnionPay cards. We will inform you later about the issuance schedule, ”explained No. 1 in the Russian banking sector. “We are already working on issuing UnionPay cards, China’s national payment system. With this card, you can make payments in 180 countries around the world,” Alfa Bank also said in its Telegram account. According to Russian news agencies, Rosbank, Tinkoff-Bank, Raiffeisen and MKB indicated that they are also working on this file.

Russia, especially its financial and banking sector, is targeting sanctions on a scale unprecedented since it brought tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine with the aim of overthrowing the government there.