UnionPay
LeaveRussia detail: Suspension
UnionPay, also known as China UnionPay or by its abbreviation, CUP or UPI internationally, is a Chinese state-owned financial services corporation headquartered in Shanghai, China. It provides bank card services and a major card scheme in mainland China.
Business in Russia
Only 2% of Russians use Chinese UnionPay cards. In general, Russians did not notice the departure of Visa and Mastercard payment systems and Apple Pay and Google Pay payment services. In Russia, cards from the Chinese payment system UnionPay linked to the Huawei Pay service have stopped working. Users are faced with the impossibility of paying with devices in terminals of domestic stores. The restrictions may be a consequence of US sanctions against the Russian National Payment Card System (NSCP), which processes all UnionPay card transactions in Russia. The TASS agency, citing correspondents, reports that Gazprombank cards have stopped working in Turkey, Germany, the UAE, Thailand, Hungary, and Vietnam.
Decision trail
Decision date 27/02/2023 · Reference ↗
Suspended issuing bank cards to Russian Banks. The largest payment system UnionPay has limited work with sanctioned Russian banks but Russian Standard Bank and some other banks' customers now have access to transfers to cards of the UnionPay payment system. The Chinese payment system UnionPay has removed from its Russian-language website information about issuing its cards in Russian banks, which have recently been sanctioned by the United States and Great Britain. VTB CEO announces discussion on returning UnionPay to Russia. Revenue decreased in 2024 vs 2023 by more than -20%.
Local stats (LeaveRussia)
Status history since 2022
- 03/08/2026 — suspended · Imported from KSE LeaveRussia
Exposure profile
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Energy, transport and commodity exposure, supplier/customer links in the region and sanctioned-party proximity.
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