Payments

Russian banks turn to Chinese payment solution in wake of sanctions

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March 8, 2022

Due to recent sanctions, Russian banks are currently looking at China as a potential solution. Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia, is examining whether it can issue co-badged cards powered by Chinese state-owned UnionPay and Russia's Mir, according to a report by Quartz.

Other companies such as Visa, Mastercard and American Express have suspended business in Russia due to its current invasion of Ukraine.

China in particular has not condemned Russia's invasion, but it also hasn't offered Russia any significant aid either. Some experts have suggested that China may be hesitant to support Russia in this payments matter as well.

Lingling Wei, a journalist at Wall Street Journal, said in a Tweet that "a Chinese banking exec in Beijing told me it's 'totally unrealistic' to expect China to help Russia evade financial sanctions simply bc its commercial ties with US/Europe are way bigger. 'If China does this, the RMB internationalization will also only go backwards dramatically.'"