Russian T‑Bank to halt Visa, Mastercard ATM service by 2025
The Russian T-Bank has announced it will discontinue the service of international payment cards starting at the beginning of 2025. The ATM network of one of the largest financial institutions in the country will impose restrictions on Visa and Mastercard cardholders, affecting millions of ordinary Russians.
11:54 AM EST, December 14, 2024
According to the Moscow Times, T-Bank's ATMs (formerly Tinkoff) will stop accepting cards from international payment systems Visa and Mastercard beginning January 1, 2025. This issue may impact customers of one of the ten largest financial institutions in Russia in terms of assets and one of the five largest banks in terms of individual deposits.
The bank assures that online card payments will still be possible. For ATM transactions, however, it recommends using the national payment system, Mir. Representatives of the institution confirm that the changes are related to the expiration of security certificates for chips used in foreign system cards.
Different approaches of banks to the problem
Customer support services at Sberbank and VTB informed the media that their terminals will continue to accept Visa and Mastercard cards. VTB Vice President Georgy Gorshkov assured in October that "cards with expired certificates will not become useless." According to his estimates, only 1 percent of Russians currently hold international system cards, and their number is systematically decreasing.
The consequences of sanctions for the Russian payment system
The problem with handling international operators' cards arises from Visa and Mastercard withdrawing from the Russian market in the spring of 2022. The payment systems made this decision in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, forcing Russian banks to seek alternative solutions.
Industry sources indicate that at the end of the year, the security certificates for chips used in Visa and Mastercard cards will expire in some Russian banks. These certificates are responsible for encrypting data during communication between the terminal and the bank while carrying out transactions.
