Russian T‑Bank to halt Visa, Mastercard ATM services by 2025
Russian T-Bank warns of ceasing services for international payment cards 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, which will affect millions of ordinary Russians.
According to the Moscow Times, T-Bank ATMs (formerly Tinkoff) will stop supporting the cards of international payment systems Visa and Mastercard starting on 1 January 2025. This issue may affect 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 the security certificates of chips used in foreign system cards.
Different approaches of banks to the issue
Customer service departments of Sberbank and VTB informed the media that their terminals would still accept Visa and Mastercard. VTB Vice President Georgi Gorshkov assured in October that "cards with expired certificates will not become useless." According to his estimates, only 1 per cent of Russians currently have international system cards, and their number is steadily decreasing.
Consequences of sanctions for the Russian payment system
The problem with the servicing of international operators' cards stems from the withdrawal of Visa and Mastercard from the Russian market in spring 2022. The payment systems made this decision in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which forced Russian banks to seek alternative solutions.
Industry sources indicate that by the end of the year, security certificates of chips used in Visa and Mastercard cards in some Russian banks will expire. These certificates are responsible for encrypting data during communication between the terminal and the bank during transactions.
