UnionPay has limited acceptance in Russia of cards issued abroad

RBC writes about this, citing its source. According to the publication, the cards stopped working in the period from April to May. Presumably, the measure is related to the fear of secondary sanctions.

- UnionPay, on its own initiative, limited partnerships with sanctioned banks both in terms of acquiring and issuing. In particular, the acceptance of foreign UnionPay cards was disabled only upon verbal notification, the interlocutor of the publication said in the payment market.

In Russia, the demand for UnionPay cards has reached feverish proportions due to the termination of work in the Russian Federation of the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard. The Chinese payment system operates in 180 countries, including the EU and the US.

At the end of last month, Russians began to have difficulty paying with expired international Visa and Mastercard cards, for which banks had previously extended the term.