Visa Will Follow Russian Payments Law Despite US Sanctions

Visa will comply with a Russian law that says international payments systems have to process transactions for the country despite U.S. sanctions, according to reports.

Visa said Russia is an important market for the company in terms of strategy, and the new law won’t make it leave the country.

“Visa is committed to its mission of ensuring smooth operation of non-cash payments for all participants of the payment system — banks, merchants [retail businesses] and consumers,” Visa said, adding that it won’t talk third-party opinions “based on assumptions and personal view of the author.”

The Bank of Russia said it is confident that all payment systems in the country will continue.

“Amendments are aimed at ensuring conformity of the activity of all payment system operators with the Russian law,” the bank said. “We are confident all the payment systems will work just as before. We do not see reasons for concern.”

The banking regulator said that all in-country transactions, which include international payment systems cards, will be processed by the National Payment Card System in Russia. Outside-of-the-country payment systems are still going to be processed outside of Russia.

Head of the State Duma Financial Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov said that all international payment systems need to do is change their rules to line up with Russian ones and everything will continue normally. If a violation happens, Aksakov said, the organization in question will be fined just as if it was a Russian one.

In other Visa news, the company has reportedly invested millions of dollars in the crypto storage company Anchorage. The payments firm co-led the funding round along with digital currency-focused venture capital firm Blockchain Capital.

Terry Angelos, who heads up Visa’s FinTech efforts, said the company is interested in supporting “companies like Anchorage who are working to provide secure infrastructure to the growing ecosystem of digital assets.” He also noted that Anchorage “is building the foundation to support an array of new financial services.”