Alexander Marrow, Andrey Obrovukh

MOSCOW (Reuters). Russian bank clients who are subject to western sanctions won’t be able use cards overseas or pay with Apple (NASDAQ) and Google (NASDAQ) card holders, the central bank announced Friday. This was in response to increasing support for banks.

The U.S., EU, and British leaders targeted Russian bank branches with sanctions to punish Moscow’s sending of troops to Ukraine. This move drew international condemnation, and the ruble plunged to new lows.

According to the central banking, credit and debit cards issued by sanctioned banks, listed as VTB and private lender Sovcombank. Novikombank. Promsvyazbank. Otkritie Bank would still be able to use their cards in Russia.

According to the central bank, “Cards issued by these banks cannot be used with ApplePay and GooglePay services. However, standard contact or contactless payments are possible with these cards throughout Russia.”

Sberbank was not mentioned by the central bank. It said that it is operating normaly and being assessed for sanctions.

According to the U.S. Treasury, banks should cut their correspondence banking links with Sberbank in 30 days. Britain has threatened asset freezes for all Russian banks.

Sberbank has 17 branches in Russia, and serves nearly 102,000,000 Russians. As of 2022, Russia had 370 banking institutions.

The central bank issued measures to address the financial instability caused by sanctions. The central bank relaxed regulatory requirements and advised banks that they could postpone the payment of bonuses and dividends to manager.

One sanctioned bank tried to soothe customers’ fear by promising funds safety.

“The banking community has enough liquidity to meet the demand. There are no restrictions for withdrawing cash at ATMs, branches, or from banks,” Otkritie, VTB, Alfa-Bank, Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank stated in a joint statement.

Alfa-Bank, a private lender, said that the penalties had only stopped it issuing shares. It was still planning to issue them. Alfa-Bank stated that it would continue to transact cross-border via SWIFT, the global interbank payment system.