Russian banks that have fallen under US blocking sanctions have begun warning clients that the UnionPay payment system cards they have issued may no longer work abroad.

“Starting November 21, there may be difficulties in the operation of UnionPay payment system cards abroad. If you are abroad, we recommend using cash,” Gazprombank said in a statement. The day before, the credit institution said that the sanctions would not affect its work, and the cards would continue to work.

At the same time, Gazprombank announced that from November 26, it will set a commission for cash withdrawals in the amount of 5.9% of the amount + 590 rubles from the “180 days UnionPay” credit card for new and existing clients. This applies to cash withdrawals from ATMs and currency issuance points of the bank, as well as banks participating in the corporate network and third-party banks. Before the introduction of sanctions against the financial institution, it was possible to withdraw up to 50 thousand rubles from such a card without a commission.

In turn, Primsotsbank  reported that “at the moment, due to the inclusion of the bank in the US sanctions list, transactions on UnionPay cards abroad may be blocked”, but they will continue to be carried out in Russia. The bank advised its clients outside the Russian Federation to withdraw cash in the near future.

At the same time, the bank suspends the acceptance of transfers in foreign currencies until it receives new rules and requirements from foreign correspondent banks.

VTB managers have also begun unofficially advising large clients in China to urgently withdraw all yuan from their UnionPay cards, one of those who received such a warning told The Moscow Times .

At the moment, cards of the Chinese payment system UnionPay are issued in Russia by Gazprombank, Credit Ural Bank (part of the Gazprombank group), Primsotsbank, Asia-Pacific Bank (ATB) and RSHB. Credit Ural Bank support could not clearly say whether UnionPay cards will work abroad. They noted that it will depend on the terminal and the country.

In total, the new list of American sanctions included almost 100 financial organizations: more than 50 banks and 40 registrars and depositories. In addition to Gazprombank, which remained the last large unsanctioned bank in Russia, among them were many medium and small organizations through which importers transferred payments to China and Turkey (BCS Bank, Dom.rf, Forabank, Garant-Invest, Derzhava, Sinara, Primsotsbank, etc.).

The US Treasury Department also reminded about the risks of secondary sanctions for foreign financial institutions that join the Russian Financial Messaging System (SPFS), created by the Bank of Russia as an analogue of SWIFT.

(C)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2024