China’s international payment system UnionPay has imposed restrictions on cash withdrawals abroad for cards issued by Russian banks. This was reported simultaneously by several media, including TASS and RIA Novosti. One of the first with new limits reported Frank Media.
The publication confirmed by Russian Standard and RRDB banks that there is a restriction on withdrawing cash for UnionPay cards from Russian banks abroad – 50 thousand yuan (507 thousand rubles at the Central Bank exchange rate on Thursday, December 29) per day and 500 thousand yuan per year (5 ,1 million rubles).
While some banks have reported that they haven’t heard of the restrictions yet, some credit institutions have called for other limits on cash withdrawals.
A Frank Media source at one of the banks said that the Chinese side has not disclosed the limits for withdrawing cash from UnionPay cards outside the card issuer country. However, Russian banks can set limits according to their own policies. Now the different limits called in different banks have been associated with exactly this fact.
Providing information on the limit application, Primorye Bank said, “If cash withdrawals from ATMs above the determined limit are required, it is recommended to issue an additional UnionPay card according to the bank’s tariffs.”
Later, referring to the press service of Zenit Bank, TASS reported that the limits imposed by the Chinese payment system are especially valid for cash withdrawals abroad, but do not affect non-cash transactions.
“The bank has received a notification from the “Zenith” payment system. At the same time, non-cash transactions are not limited,” he said.
Commenting on the Chinese company’s decision, State Duma Deputy Stanislav Naumov attributed it to the imminent relaxation of quarantine measures for the coronavirus, which Beijing had announced since January.
“I think this is determined by a temporary internal decision of the Chinese authorities and the logic of quarantine. There will be more contact and travel if the quarantine is lifted now. As the experience of Russia in responding to crises shows, this is quite suitable as a temporary measure to stabilize financial transactions. I am sure that China is interested in expanding not only the tourist flow, but also business cooperation. In the future, UnionPay can and should be considered a system used by all residents of the Russian Federation and residents of the EAEU countries.
After Visa and MasterCard left Russia this spring, UnionPay remains the only international payment system operating in the country.
The Chinese company did not officially react to the sanctions against Russia. However, as RBC wrote in April, UnionPay blocked Western sanctions, barring Russian banks from issuing their cards. Now the issuers of such cards are Russian Standard, MTS Bank, Rosselkhozbank, Gazprombank, Solidarity, St. Petersburg, Primsotsbank, Primorye, RRDB, Zenit and Post Bank.
Despite the direction of Western payment systems, only 2% of Russians use UnionPay cards, they are most popular in the Far East and East Siberia regions.
Many foreign online stores do not accept payments with UnionPay cards issued by Russian banks. In the autumn, several European countries immediately stopped accepting cards of this payment system issued in Russia. For example, from October 3, ATMs in Finland are no longer serviced, and from October 5, Russia UnionPay cards are not accepted in Spain, Czech Republic and Cyprus.