Commercial banks in Kazakhstan have stopped servicing UnionPay cards issued by Russian Gazprombank following a new package of anti-Russian sanctions. Banks in several other countries, including Uzbekistan, Turkey, the UAE, Thailand, India, Vietnam and Egypt, have taken similar measures.
«When someone tries to withdraw money from an ATM, they see a technical error notification or a message saying that the bank does not provide service for these cards. Some ATMs notify users that the bank didn’t authorize transactions with their cards. Banks refuse to service both corporate cards issued by Gazprombank and those linked to the UnionPay system,» the TASS news agency reported.
Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced a new package of sanctions that also targeted Russian Gazprom and its Kazakhstan subsidiary.
Gazprombank is one of the largest banks in Russia, with branch offices in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India and China. According to the bank’s website, its subsidiary in Kazakhstan is headed by Askar Aspandiyarov.
In January 2024, Gazprombank suspended the processing of money transfers denominated in Kazakhstan’s currency, the tenge. A month later, the bank announced it had restored transactions in tenge. However, the bank’s website does not mention any corresponding banks that support transactions in tenge.
