FX.co ★ Venezuela to ditch Visa, MasterCard

Venezuelan authorities decided to halt Visa and Mastercard operations due to US sanctions. Moreover, the regulator considers developing the national payment system.

Debit cards transactions are expected to terminate from November 30, 2019, while credit cards will stop working from January 30, 2020.

The Venezuelan financial sector was instructed to develop and launch its own payment system using biometric identification within the next two months.

Earlier it was reported that due to the economic crisis, Venezuelans had refused to use the bolivar, the national currency, and switched to Bitcoins. Recently, the government has admitted that the country is experiencing difficulties with payments in El Petro, the local cryptocurrency. In this regard, the authorities consider the transition to the Russian rubles, experts note.