The Chinese payment system UnionPay refused to cooperate with Sberbank, so it will not issue its cards. According to RBC, citing sources, UnionPay fears possible consequences due to cooperation with large Russian banks that have fallen under sanctions. Bank employees were told about the decision of the Chinese payment system at a closed meeting.
UnionPay cards proved to be in demand in Russia after the start of wars in Ukraine when international payment systems, including Visa, Mastercard and JCB, refused to work in Russia. The cards of these systems, issued by Russian banks, stopped working abroad, it became impossible to pay for purchases in foreign online stores with them. UnionPay was the only international system left in the country. It accounted for 1% of cards in circulation in 2020, which is about 2.7 million cards, according to the British company RBR.
Major banks, including Sberbank, VTB, Otkritie and Alfa-Bank, said in early March that they were exploring the possibility of using the system. The announcement came a month before Sberbank came under US blocking sanctions. Promsvyazbank issued UnionPay cards even before falling under the sanctions, but stopped doing so, said the call center of the credit institution. Sovcombank planned to issue Halva cards based on UnionPay, but abandoned these plans due to the fact that the use of any cards of sanctioned banks abroad is futile, a source in the payment market told RBC.
Now UnionPay cards are issued by ten issuing banks. After the imposition of sanctions, the demand for them jumped tenfold: the issue volume increased from 50,000 to 500,000 pieces. In parallel with the popularity, the cost of issuing and maintaining cards has also grown: the annual commission sometimes exceeds 10,000 rubles, and for an urgent issue, some banks charge up to 15,000 rubles.
UnionPay cards, according to the company, work in 180 countries, including the US and the EU. However, Russian owners complain that they are not accepted for payment everywhere. So, according to Fontanka, in Asia and the Middle East, these cards work on a par with MasterCard and Visa, in a number of European countries, users may experience problems, but things are worse with them in the USA and Israel. Moreover, all cards issued by any Russian bank stopped working in Israel.
It is not always possible to pay for purchases in online stores. Banks do not officially confirm the problem, but Kommersant’s sources say that online stores themselves have decided not to serve Russian cardholders amid the invasion of Ukraine, although sanctions do not provide for this. In such situations, stores do not allow acquiring banks to make payments with cards issued in Russia, regardless of the payment system.