Visa, Mastercard halt bank card services in Crimea after US sanctions

The US has prohibited US-registered companies from investing in Crimea or providing services to firms operating there, among sanctions imposed over Russias annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine.

“As for the time period, these limitations will last until the sanctions are lifted from Crimea. At the moment it is unclear when this will happen; it will depend on the development of the political and diplomatic situation”, according to a Visa representative, cited by rt.com.

Earlier in 2014, the two companies stopped servicing a few Russian banks that were hit by the first rounds of the Western sanctions in March. Authorities claimed that this would spur the creation of the national payment system. In mid-December 2014, Russia’s Rossiya and SMP banks started testing the country’s own payment system.