Mastercard announced September 4 it will stop providing services to the Bank of the Bolivarian National Armed Force (Banfanb) and the Agricultural Bank of Venezuela. The company said in a statement that U.S. sanctions on the country “prohibit Mastercard from doing business with certain individuals and entities”. However, activities could be re-established in the coming months “if the country’s circumstances change,” the company said.

The president of Banfanb, Dario Baute, said that credit and debit cards had been “disconnected” from the operations network of Mastercard. Banfanb will be seeking to restore the payment capacity of credit and debit cards through the company Credicard. “We have restored the service by 60%,” Baute said.

The withdrawal of Mastercard from the market comes amid the joint initiative by the Superintendence of Banking Sector Institutions (Sudeban) and public and private banks to create an alternative and complementary payment system to the one currently offered by companies such as Visa and Mastercard. In this way, the Executive branch seeks to guarantee the stability of the financial system in the face of U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.