Russia can refrain from using “Visa” and “Mastercard”

21.03.2014

On the website of “SMP-bank” appeared a message according to which operations on cards “Visa” and “Mastercard” were blocked. Sanctions were imposed not on the bank itself but on its shareholders. In this regard, the press-service of the bank said that the actions of these payment systems are regarded by the bank as illegal. A similar message appeared on the website of "Sobinbank." “Visa” and “MasterCard” stop providing their services on carrying out payment transactions for customers of the bank without giving a notice. Finally, the payment systems stopped supporting cards emitted by the bank "Russia".

The Chairman of the State Duma Committee on financial market Natalia Burykina claimed in the interview for “Izvestia” that the above-mentioned payment systems work in Russia so they should comply with Russian legislation. Burykina also added that a variant to refrain from payment systems “Visa” and ”Mastercard” and to use Russian payment systems is not excluded.

Based on: http://smpbank.ru/ru/news/904; http://sobinbank.ru/ru/about_bank/news_bank_new/news_bank/103118/

Expert’s opinion

“OJSC Bank “Northern Sea Route” is included in the list of the 50 largest banks in Russia. It is controlled by the brothers Rotenberg Boris and Arkady, for two of them it is more than 70% of the shares. Boris Romanovich Rotenberg is Vice-President of the Russian Judo Federation. Arkady Romanovich Rotenberg is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s friends, in the past - judo wrestler in one of the Leningrad section, he trained with Putin.

In March 20 Boris and Arkady joined Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN) and restrictions of type “Individual” under the program “UKRAINE2”. It should be noted that this list includes all members of the cooperative "Lake", except one. Persons who are in the OFAC list or CSN list are under the threat of the following: there is a requirement not to pass payments in dollars for companies that belong to the people from this list on are 50 percent or more. Apparently, for this reason blocking of transactions commenced.

It makes sense to think about opening accounts in good western banks, especially, when it comes to payments in hard currencies. Now many banks tighten procedures for opening accounts. Nevertheless, such possibility exists. And in terms of convenience, the Baltic banks are the optimal choice. For example, a subsidiary of “SMP bank” in Latvia has no problems with payments. Call and sign up for a consultation, our lawyers will help you to make a choice

Yaroslav Lomakin ( Managing partner of Honest & Bright” company)