MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

323 wrote: post #2

Visa too: > Visa Suspends All Russia Operations https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.rele... MasterCard/Visa cards issued in Russia will not work abroad, cards issued abroad will not work in Russia. > MasterCard/Visa account for three-quarters of payments in Russia https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/150023911662537932...

Interesting that the title says all operations are suspended, but description basically says that foreign cards won't work in Russia and Russian cards work abroad, but does it mean local Russian cards will still work in Russia? That's probably majority of transactions anyway. A bit confused here.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#5

Post by samwillis » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 10:45 PM UTC

Mirror: https://archive.ph/d5RmA (was down)

Key passage:

“ With this action, cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network. And, any Mastercard issued outside of the country will not work at Russian merchants or ATMs.”

I don’t believe it’s clear that cards issued in Russia are not still being accepted within Russia. Which is what I believe Visa is still doing:

“ all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country and any Visa cards issued by financial institutions outside of Russia will no longer work within the Russian Federation.”

https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.rele...

If MasterCard is matching Visa it’s effectively cross border transactions that have stopped - not withdraw access to Russian issued cards within Russia.

If they have withdrawn access to Russian cards within Russia it’s going to put enormous pressure on Russian citizens. Visa and Mastercard apparently have 73% of the credit card market in Russia. This could be the type of pressure need for citizens to push back at the Russian administration (not that they aren’t already).

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#6

Post by 323 » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 10:48 PM UTC

tananaev wrote: post #4

323 wrote: post #2

Visa too: > Visa Suspends All Russia Operations https://usa.visa.com/about-visa/newsroom/press-releases.rele... MasterCard/Visa cards issued in Russia will not work abroad, cards issued abroad will not work in Russia. > MasterCard/Visa account for three-quarters of payments in Russia https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/150023911662537932...

Interesting that the title says all operations are suspended, but description basically says that foreign cards won't work in Russia and Russian cards work abroad, but does it mean local Russian cards will still work in Russia? That's probably majority of transactions anyway. A bit confused here.

The MastarCard statement suggests that Russian cards will not work in Russia.

> we have decided to suspend our network services in Russia.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#7

Post by savant_penguin » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 10:49 PM UTC

"We’re undergoing site maintenance. But don’t worry — as there’s no impact to your ability to make Mastercard purchases or payments"

Unless you're Russian I guess.

As much as I enjoy the act this could backfire as a show of the tremendous power these companies have: shutting down credit card payments will likely impact large portions of online payments.

But at the same time every extra inefficiency in the Russian economy could translate into less bullets going to kill Ukrainians

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#8

Post by mananaysiempre » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 10:50 PM UTC

As far as I can tell, this will mainly have an impact on people trying to leave, because payments within the country will still work (if badly because the substitute system, NSPK, is shoddy), but the Russian government doesn’t allow crossing the border with more than the equivalent of 10k USD in cash (since several days ago) and most other money transfer companies are refusing service as well.

So, for example, previously locals employed by companies that valiantly declared their condemnation of Putin by shutting down their Russian offices had three choices: work for a company that does support Putin, leave, or starve. Now it’s just work for a Putin supporter or starve.

(Not entirely true because at least some of those companies put their employees on paid leave for now, but that’s still probably what it will ultimately boil down to in the relatively near future. Passenger planes being arrested in foreign airports because of sudden lease termination make for a similar one-two punch combo together with Putin’s closure of the land border in 2020: it’s getting very hard—and expensive—to physically leave even if you don’t want anything to do with this [15-year jail sentence] and never did.)

Good job..?

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#9

Post by systemvoltage » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 10:51 PM UTC

Do companies of this size already have the infrastructure built, a kill switch of the sorts, to turn off an entire country’s payment system? I’m thinking not just technology wise, but also things like existing subscriptions and contractual legal stuff between countries, customers, etc. It seems like a monumental undertaking to integrate payment systems for a new country, turning it off seems even more impressive.

Re: MasterCard suspends all services in Russia

#10

Post by assusdan » Sat, Mar 05, 2022, 10:53 PM UTC

samwillis wrote: post #5

Mirror: https://archive.ph/d5RmA (was down) Key passage: “ With this action, cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network. And, any Mastercard issued outside of the country will not work at Russian merchants or ATMs.” I don’t believe it’s clear that cards issued in Russia are not still being accepted within Russia. Which is what I believe Visa is still doing: “ all transactions…

In Russia, all country-local Visa and MasterCard payments are processed by country-owned NSPK system https://nspk.com

So all local payments will work, but no abroad payments (and no foreign cards to pay locally in Russia). Probably, I will lost most of my cloud data and compute resources incl. VPNs. Fortunately, some providers do accept SWIFT payments.