China’s credit card processors have refused to work with the Russian Banks

Chinese credit card processors have refused to work with the Russian Banks for fear of being targeted by sanctions over its war on Ukraine, cutting off possible alternatives after Visa and Mastercard stopped serving them, as reported by Russian outlet RBC.

And Union Pay’s decision affects Sberbank, Russia’s most prominent commercial bank, and smaller institutions.

As Mastercard and Visa had suspended operations in Russia after the United States and other governments imposed trade and financial sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s government for its attack on Ukraine, then Sberbank, Tinkoff Bank, and other institutions had announced that they were looking at switching to UnionPay, which is operated by Chinese state-owned banks and is one of the biggest global payments processors and does almost all business in China.

And now the American officials have warned that the government or companies that try to undermine sanctions will face the consequences, and UnionPay wants to avoid such “Secondary Sanctions.”