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VISA International Service Association has confirmed it did not lift sanctions against Russian Genbank following the bank's earlier statement that it had resumed servicing of Visa cards in Crimea, according to Ukrainian newspaper Europeiska Pravda.
In its official statement sent to Europeiska Pravda, Visa confirmed it had suspended servicing of Russian banks operating in Crimea over U.S. sanctions, according to the report. In particular, the sanctions were imposed against Russian Genbank, the major banking institution in the peninsula, established by the de facto "executive authorities" in Crimea.
Visa representatives claim the restrictions have been maintained as required by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Any cooperation with JSC Genbank will be suspended until OFAC lifts its sanctions, the report said.
However, Visa did not comment on how Genbank was able to launch transactions with Visa cards.
As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian Genbank, which has been included on the international sanctions list, announced that it had started Visa card servicing in the temporarily occupied Crimea via the National Payment Card system on January 20, 2016.