Russia Plans to Fine International Payment Systems for Freezing Accounts

In March, Visa and Mastercard payment systems ceased servicing cards issued by the Rossiya bank and two of its subsidiary banks, as well as SMP Bank in Russia. According to Central Bank of Russia, several hundred thousands of bank clients were affected.

As a result, the Russia’s Central Bank and the State Duma are working on legislation that would allow the Russian financial regulator to fine Visa and MasterCard’s payment systems for freezing cards belonging to Russians.

Due to the crisis in Ukraine, the United States and the European Union have drawn up lists of Russian politicians and businessmen, which were blacklisted by western companies and barred from entering EU and US.

At this point it is also known that the EU has created an expanded list of Russian citizens who may be included in the sanction list in case the Ukrainian conflict escalates.

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