What you need to know
- Apple has updated its Apple Pay support website.
- The website removed the Russian bank of Novikombank from its list of supported banks.
- A number of Russian banks have been sanctioned in response to the Ukraine invasion.
Apple Pay shouldn't be expected to work for a while.
Apple is dropping Russian-sanctioned banks from its list of supported banks for Apple Pay.
A post from the Twitter account SupportDiffs showed that Apple removed Novikombank, one of the banks that was included in sanctions, from its list of Apple Pay-supported banks.
Apple updated "Apple Pay participating banks in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East"
Apple confirms recently-sanctioned Novikombank in Russia no longer works with Apple Pay. https://t.co/cc8EirMY0Y
— Stephen Warwick (@StephenWarwick9) February 28, 2022
If you go to the Apple Support website for Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, Apple has removed Novikombank from the list of banks that support Apple Pay in the areas.
After the sanctions from the United States were announced last week, customers of affected Russian banks noticed that Apple Pay (and other digital payment services like Google Pay) had stopped working in Russia.
Those banks' customers wouldn't be able to use their cards abroad, or to make online payments to companies registered in countries that have issued sanctions, the Central Bank said.
Now, it appears that Apple is cutting off those banks from Apple Pay outside of the country as well. These are currently the banks that are currently part of the sanctions (as per the previous report):
- VTB Group
- Sovcombank
- Novikombank
- Promsvyazbank
- Otkritie
While Apple Pay is no longer available, customers of those banks should still be able to use their physical card and contactless payment with the card if it supports NFC. However, as more countries adopt sanctions against Russia and its banks, customers could find fewer and fewer places to use their debit and credit cards issued by affected banks.
Sanctions continue to mount against Russia and its leadership after the country invaded Ukraine last week.