Visa extends Russian cards' operation abroad for 1 day, until March 11

MOSCOW. March 9 (Interfax) - The Visa payment system has extended the operation of Russian bankcards for one day, until March 11, the company said in a statement.

Starting from March 11, bankcards issued in Russia will no longer work abroad and will stop being admitted by foreign online stores. Visa cards will continue to work as usual inside Russia until their expiry date. Since 2015, transactions conducted by these cards have been processed by the National Payment Card System.

Visa said on Sunday it would stop service for Russian bankcards at 12:01 a.m. on March 10.

MasterCard, American Express and JCB announced the suspension of their operations in the Russian market earlier.

Large Russian banks said they were considering the possibility of issuing Mir cards based on the Chinese UnionPay system.