GlobalData: Payment Networks to Lose More Than $2B After Russian Suspension

The major payment networks will lose about $2.4 billion as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to data and analytics company GlobalData.

Visa and Mastercard each suspended business in Russia in early March. For Mastercard, Russia accounted for about $755 million in revenue in 2021; for Visa, about $964 million in revenue was generated from Russia last year, according to GlobalData banking analyst Murthy Grandhi. For each network, that was about 4 percent of total revenue last year.

With business suspended in Russia, cards issued by Russian banks on the Visa and Mastercard networks will not work outside of Russia, though “consumers can still use the cards for making payments within the country until their expiration, as the domestic payments in Russia are processed through the domestic National Payment Card System,” Grandhi said.

Ukraine in 2021 accounted for about $378 million of revenue for MasterCard in 2021, about 2 percent of total revenue. For Visa, revenue from Ukraine was $241 million, about 1 percent of total revenue.

GlobalData’s total estimation also included PayPal, which in 2020 ceased domestic services in Russia but last month restricted the rest of its business activities there, including blocking Russian clients’ e-wallets, according to Grandhi. Russia and Ukraine together accounted for about $127 million in revenue for PayPal last year, about 0.5 percent of total revenue. Grandhi also noted that Discover has suspended its plans to enter the Russian market.

Michael B. Baker  www.businesstravelnews.com