Visa Inc, the world's largest credit and debit card company, said the U.S. sanctions on Russia hurt its card transaction volumes and that revenue growth would slow further this quarter.
"We are caught between the politics of the United States and the politics of Russia," Chief Financial Officer Byron Pollitt said on a post-earnings conference. He said that for the first time in more than four years Visa's quarterly revenue growth was below 10%.
Earlier Vladimir Putin said that Visa and MasterCard, which account for 90 percent of the Russian market, are undermining trust of their Russian customers, hence will lose market share for sure. The Russian President stressed again that Russia needs its own payment system.
Visa and MasterCard stopped processing cards for Bank Rossiya and blocked SMP Bank’s cards. However, later the SMP Bank's access to the companies’ network was resumed.
The U.S. government imposed sanctions against some Russian officials and businessmen after Vladimir Putin signed into law the treaty formally making Crimea part of the Russian Federation. In particular, the list includes the Rotenberg brothers and the only legal entity Bank Rossiya, controlled by Yury Kovalchuk, who is also on the sanctions list.
