Overview

• Bank of Russia official Alla Bakina said regulators will not disconnect Russian‑issued Visa and Mastercard cards with extended terms and will avoid abrupt measures.
• NSPK confirmed that security certificates embedded in all Visa and Mastercard chips stopped being valid on January 1, 2025, creating a payment‑security risk.
• The contemplated steps focus on cards past their printed expiry as a return to fixed‑validity issuance rather than retroactively shortening active cards.
• NSPK is assembling a market position and expects banks to propose timelines for removing expired cards from circulation before presenting options to the central bank.
• Following the 2022 pullback by Visa and Mastercard, Russian banks extended domestic card use, which continues to function inside Russia but not for transactions abroad.