Kotak Mahindra Bank debit card users on the Mastercard and Visa network will no longer be able to make financial transactions in or to Russia following the suspension of services by the card network operators in the country.

In an email sent to its customers, the bank said any transaction at the ATM, POS or online done through Kotak Bank debit cards using the Mastercard/ Visa network would be denied.

“Due to the ongoing situation in Ukraine, Mastercard and Visa have decided to suspend all the network services in Russia,” Kotak Mahindra Bank said in the email.

Earlier this month, three American card network operators -- Visa, Mastercard and American Express -- suspended services in Russia after sanctions were imposed by the West on Moscow for invading Ukraine.

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In the first week of March, Mastercard announced that its network would also not support Russian bank cards.

Although the move will not stop shoppers from using the cards for purchases within Russia, cards issued globally on these networks will not work in the country at point-of-sale (POS) terminals or ATMs.

This also means that Russian clients will be barred from using their cards abroad or for international payments online.

At present, outside China, Visa and Mastercard control about 90 percent of credit and debit payments in the world.

In Russia, cash accounts for about a third of payments at the PoS level, while debit and credit cards account for 51 percent, Mint reported quoting data from FIS Global Payments Report 2022.

Having faced similar sanctions in 2014 following its invasion of Crimea, Russia has built its own national payment card system with the hope of conducting all domestic transactions through it.

Mir, the Russian counterpart of Visa and Mastercard, accounts for 30 percent of debit cards in circulation in the country, but it is facing roadblocks in conducting international transactions.

After Mastercard and Visa said they would cease operations in Russia, several Russian banks announced plans to start issuing cards using the Chinese UnionPay card operator system.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)