MOSCOW, April 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Visa international payment system stops servicing Russia's SMP Bank and InvestCapitalBank.
“On April 28, 2014, several more Russian individuals and organizations, including SMP Bank and InvestCapitalBank, were added to the list of specially designated nationals, or SDNs. In compliance with the US legislation, Visa International Service Association stopped servicing the abovementioned financial institutions,” a spokesperson for Visa told ITAR-TASS.
On April 28, the US announced sanctions against 7 Russian individuals and 17 companies, including SMP Bank, Sobinbank and InvestCapitalBank. Sanctions against the Rossiya (Russia) bank were introduced at the end of March.
Earlier, Mastercard payment system also stopped servicing Russia’s SMP Bank and InvestCapitalBank. A spokesperson for the international payment service told ITAR-TASS that Mastercard acted in compliance with the US sanctions against the banks.
SMP Bank and InvestCapitalBank had already been mistakenly sanctioned. On March 21, Visa and Mastercard stopped servicing SMP Bank, InvestCapitalBank and the Rossiya (Russia) bank. The services were resumed several days later.
SMP Bank is co-owned by Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg, who were also sanctioned by the US administration.