By Alexander Kolyandr
MOSCOW--Two of the three Russian banks whose cards operations
were blocked by international payment systems companies Visa Inc.
(V) and MasterCard Inc. (MA) on Friday due to U.S. sanctions said
Sunday that the issue has been resolved.
Visa and Mastercard said Friday that they had stopped servicing
Bank Rossiya after the U.S. placed sanctions against it in
connection with the annexation of Crimea. The payment systems also
ceased servicing three further banks connected with Bank Rossiya
and the people mentioned in the sanctions--Sobinbank, InvestCapital
Bank and SMP Bank.
InvestCapital Bank and SMP Bank said Sunday that both Visa and
MasterCard have renewed servicing the banks' cards.
SMP said on its website Sunday that MasterCard cards are working
and Visa cards will be serviceable by the end of the day. "The
validity of Mastercard cards is fully restored, transactions with
Visacards will begin within a few hours as long as communications
channels are adjusted and equipment settings are updated," SMP Bank
said.
InvestCapital Bank's customer service said both types of the
cards will be serviceable by Monday morning in full, when "software
is reset."
Visa and MasterCard weren't available for immediate confirmation
or comment.
However, customer services of Bank Rossiya and its subsidiary
Sobinbank said their cards still aren't serviceable by the
international payment systems.
The holders of these banks' cards can't pay for goods and
services using their cards, but can use the cards to withdraw cash
from the bank's ATMs or ATMs of other Russian banks serviced by the
United Payment Service, also known as ORS, a national net which
unifies dozens of banks.
Write to Alexander Kolyandr at alexander.kolyandr@wsj.com
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