The MasterCard payment system has stopped servicing cards of the Russian Tempbank, which was included by the US Treasury Department in the sanctions list for Syria, the Interfax agency reported on Tuesday , citing an employee of the bank’s call center.

“The American side has blocked our cards. Now it is only possible to withdraw cash from our cash desks and ATMs, as well as ATMs of the Bank of Moscow,” the agency quotes him as saying. The agency's interlocutor also said that Tempbank is looking for opportunities to issue cards from other payment systems and is considering, among other things, the possibility of issuing cards from the Chinese UnionPay or the "Universal Electronic Card" (the PRO100 system, controlled by Sberbank).

Tempbank did not issue Visa cards. In the “plastic cards” section on the website, Tempbank offers its clients plastic bank cards of the international MasterCard system of any category.

On May 8, the US Treasury included Tempbank and its chairman of the board, Mikhail Gagloev, in the updated list of persons against whom sanctions are being imposed in connection with the situation in Syria. According to the department, the bank helped the Syrian Central Bank and the Syrian state oil company Sytrol, which were previously subject to US sanctions.

On May 12, Tempbank stopped making transfers in dollars from the accounts of legal entities and individuals. Transfers in euros continue to be carried out.

Based on the results of the first quarter of 2014, Tempbank ranks 250th in terms of assets in the Interfax-100 ranking prepared by Interfax-CEA. According to data published on the credit institution's website, its shareholders as of September 12, 2013 were 47 legal entities and 2,424 individuals. Mikhail Gagloev is the Chairman of the Board of Tempbank. As of March 6, 2014, he owned 9% of the bank's shares.

MasterCard stopped servicing Tempbank cards due to US sanctions on Syria