Mastercard has blocked access of its payment system "to many financial institutions" due to anti-Russian sanctions imposed in connection with the situation around Ukraine, said in a statement the chairman of the corporation Michael Miebach.
"As a result of the sanctions, we have blocked access to Mastercard payment network forseveral financial institutions. We will continue to work with regulators in the coming days to fully meet our obligations," he said.
Following the disablement of the Mastercard payment system, one wouldn’t be able to use the cards of these banks abroad and in foreign online stores. They will still work within Russia, since the payments are processed by the domestic National Payment Card System.
Earlier, Russian VTB, Otkrytie, Sovcombank, Promsvyazbank and Novikombank got sunctioned by US.
The head of the corporation stressed that the "invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces" was devastating for Ukrainians.
"Our thoughts are with those affected," he added.
In addition, according to Miebach, Mastercard is working with partners to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
To recap, earlier the EU member states and the USA agreed to disconnect Russia from SWIFT. SWIFT, meaning the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, is controlled by the National Bank of Belgium and representatives of central banks from the United States, Britain, the EU, Japan, Russia, China and others. It delivers secure messages to more than 11,000 financial institutions and companies in more than 200 countries and territories.