Japanese payment system JCB has decided to suspend its operations in Russia, TASS reports, citing JIJI agency.

“JCB cards issued in Russia will no longer be supported outside the country, and any JCB cards issued outside of Russia will no longer be supported within the Russian Federation,” the statement said. According to Nikkei paper, the measures will enter into effect from March 14.

Founded in 1961, JCB is the biggest payment system of Japan and one of the seven leading payment systems of the world. It is the third with a wide card acceptance network. Its cards are accepted in 190 countries.

It is noteworthy, that after international payment systems Visa and Mastercard decided to suspend services in Russia, JCB was viewed as an alternative to them. In particular, JCB cards could replace Visa and Mastercard. Several Russian banks were issuing JCB cards. In addition, co-badged Mir-JCB were issued in Russia.



To date, the Chinese payment system UnionPay remains an alternative. In 2007, CUP cards began to be accepted in Russia. In 2014, Russian banks began to issue them. In 2016, the NSPC and the Chinese CUP agreed to launch a Mir-UnionPay co-badged card project. Several Russian banks issue these cards. Probably, the number of banks issuing UnionPay cards will increase. Sber, Alfa-Bank and Tinkoff have already announced working on it.

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