Banks deny possible problems for Russians with Visa and Mastercard cards
If Russians follow the recommendations of the NSPK, there should be no problems, experts pointed out, but they do not completely exclude such risks
Russians are being warned about possible problems with paying for goods and services using Visa and Mastercard cards. It is reported that the expiration of security certificates of their chips can lead to failures. However, experts and bank representatives interviewed by Realnoe Vremya refute this information. According to them, even in this case, cardholders will not lose access to money and will be able to use other payment methods.
Will there be failures when paying with Visa and Mastercard?
Some Russians may face problems paying for goods and services at the end of 2024 if they use Visa and Mastercard cards. Disruptions may occur because several Russian banks will see the expiration of security chip certificates for these cards during this period, and their continued functionality will depend on the decisions of credit institutions themselves, RBC has learned.
At the same time, such certificates may not coincide with the validity period of the plastic card itself — banks purchase them for different periods. While the Visa and Mastercard international payment systems were operating in Russia, certificates were being renewed, but now banks need to decide on their own whether to accept these cards for payment or not.
The card's functionality will depend on two credit institutions that participate in the payment: the issuing bank and the acquiring bank. Although even in this case, some payments may fail. As the sources of the publication explained, this “may cause problems with deferred transactions, for example, when paying for transport or offline, that is, in cases when the POS terminal is not connected to the network.” However, the share of such transactions in the total volume is small, experts pointed out.
“It sounds scary: the cards will turn into bricks — but in reality, this will not happen”
Commenting on the situation to Realnoe Vremya, Pavel Samiev, an economist, director general of BusinessDrom analytical agency, said that the situation would not cause serious problems: “It is clear that at first glance it sounds scary enough that the cards will turn into bricks, as they say. But in reality, that's not really going to happen.”
In this case, according to him, we are not talking about forcibly disabling the functionality of the cards and the very possibility of paying with them. The procedure concerns one of the system settings, since Visa and Mastercard do not extend their obligations to guarantee the security of chips when performing card transactions.
The second similar case, according to him, arose with the expiration of validity of cards. Banks have decided that the plastic of international payment systems will become indefinite and will remain in effect until it simply physically fails. “It will be exactly the same now — the settings will be changed. Accordingly, they can be used for payments.”
The only thing, the speaker noted, is that the settings need to be adjusted both by the acquiring bank and the issuing bank — this is necessary for transactions to continue for cards whose chip security certification is not supported.
“But again, I don't see a problem here either. To be honest, I can't imagine a situation where someone from the bank would say they wouldn't support it, it's unlikely. I can't imagine what the reasons for this might be. Therefore, I think there is no need to change the cards urgently and worry that they will stop working, too. In theory, someone may have some problems, some kind of failure due to that somewhere these settings were not confirmed in time, and then I think that the probability of this is extremely low.”
The interlocutor of the publication recommends that citizens get at least one Mir card in their wallet, “because it is clear that there are no such risks in principle”. However, there are no prerequisites for urgently transferring all cards to this system, fearing that others will stop working.
According to him, the situation with “expired” certificates contributes to the further expansion of Mir cards. The interlocutor of the publication also recalled that expired Visa and Mastercard cards issued by Russian banks continue to operate on the Russian market.
“If everyone follows the recommendations of the NSPK, there should be no problems”
Realnoe Vremya has contacted several banks with a request to clarify what problems Visa and Mastercard cardholders may have when using them after the expiration of chip security certificates and how they can be avoided. T-Bank assured that there is nothing to worry about yet, the cards are working, and even if something changes, customers will be notified in advance:
“First of all, this applies to the card itself, and the money is in your account, and nothing will happen to them," the bank said. “When official information comes, we know about it and we definitely notify you through open communication channels. But so far there has been no such information, the issued Visa and Mastercard cards in our country are still working, and if it is important for you to be safe, we can issue a Mir card for you.”
The credit institution added that they would warn customers about the possible termination of the card's operability and noted that even in this case they would have access to money on plastic: “You will have the opportunity to transfer them, pay with a QR code, if you have an Android, pay using a contactless method.”
Specialists of call centres of a number of other credit institutions reported that they do not yet have the necessary information on the issue.
“In terms of issuing and acquiring, the Bank of Kazan will not refuse to conduct transactions on Visa cards with expired certificates. If all acquirers follow the recommendations of the National Payment Card System (NSPK) regarding offline checks at terminals, there should be no problems with service, the Tatarstan credit institution informed the publication.”
How Mir replaced MasterCard and Visa
According to experts, the situation will affect no more than 1% of Russians' bank cards, since the vast majority have already switched to the Mir card. There are fewer and fewer MasterCard and Visa cards in our country every day, although a small part is still in circulation.
The international payment systems MasterCard and Visa announced the suspension of activities in Russia in March 2022, citing the special military operation in Ukraine. The cards issued in our country stopped working outside the country, and those issued abroad stopped working in Russia.
Visa then stated that it was working to terminate all transactions, expressing regret that this would affect “valuable colleagues, customers, partners, merchants and cardholders” whom it serves in the Russian Federation. Mastercard announced that it was ceasing to provide services in Russia, and “this measure implies that cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the system”.
At the same time, the Central Bank announced that MasterCard and Visa cards of Russian banks would continue to work in our country. Sberbank added that the decision of international payment systems would not affect the operation of cards within the state: “It will be possible to make transactions on the territory of Russia using them — withdraw cash, make transfers by card number, pay both in offline stores and in Russian online stores.” The credit institution explained this by saying that in Russia all payments go through the domestic NSPK system and do not depend “on foreign payment solutions”.