Finnish ATMs stop accepting UnionPay cards

The reason was the increased demand for cash on the part of Russians arriving in the country en masse, Kommersant reports.

Nosto was the only network in Finland that served Chinese UnionPay cards, with which Russians travel abroad after the Visa and Mastercard systems supported the imposition of sanctions against the Russian Federation for launching a military operation on the territory of Ukraine.

Representatives of the Nokas CMS network, which serves 500 Nosto ATMs in the country, announced an anomalous situation on the eastern border of Finland.

Since the announcement of partial mobilization in the Russian Federation, about 60,000 citizens of the Russian Federation have entered Finland in a week. After crossing the border, the Russians massively “emptyed” the nearest ATMs. They ran out of cash "in a matter of hours." The country's financial system was not ready for such a mass withdrawal of cash.

“In the worst case, the amounts of cash withdrawn were so large that they could not be private Russian tourists shopping in Finland,” the company said.

Earlier it was reported that since September 30, Finland has banned the entry of Russian tourists and transit passengers. Initially, it was assumed that the ban would apply to those entering Finland by land from Russia. However, air passengers believe that now the ban has been extended to travel by air.

On the eve of the Finnish airline FinnAir did not allow five passengers with Russian passports to board their plane at Dusseldorf airport, despite the availability of tickets.

From now on, the entry of tourists from Russia to Finland is prohibited. Only members of Finnish families, students, employees of local firms and patients of Finnish clinics are allowed in.