Visa, MasterCard Stop Processing Bank Rossiya's Card Transactions

Visa and MasterCard stopped processing transactions for holders of cards, issued by Russia's bank Rossiya, the bank said.

"The management of Rossiya understands the difficulties of clients in the current situation and will do all it can to solve them," the bank said in a statement.

The bank added, that the cardholders can still withdraw cash from the ATMs of Rossiya and its partner banks Sobinbank and the United Payment System.

The bank is allegedly closed to the Kremlin regime and is subjected to international sanctions over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. 

The news signalled the first impact on ordinary Russian citizens by a series of Western sanctions against Russia.

Earlier sanctions had been restricted to targeting high-level officials. 

Sobinbank, part of the Rossiya banking group, said, quoted by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, that its call centers had been swamped by customers who were abroad and suddenly found their cards were not working.

Also affected was the Russian SMP Bank, majority owned by brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg, who were named as individuals in the US sanctions list.

“All other operations, including the issuance of deposits and making payments remain unaffected and without any restrictions,” SMP Bank said in a statement, adding that it has no assets in the United States.