UBS imposes sanctions on parts of Ukraine

In implementing the sanctions against the Russian Federation, UBS has also imposed economic coercive measures on parts of the Ukrainian state. Anyone who wants to pay with a Visa credit card from, for example, UBS in a restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk will be disappointed. The transaction has not been approved.

A call to customer service shows that the major bank has blocked all payments in the Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia – in accordance with “internal regulations and legal provisions”. The regions annexed by Moscow also include Donetsk Oblast, in which Pokrovsk is located. In fact, the mining and industrial city has been in the hands of the Ukrainians since February 2022.

In such cases, instead of punishing Russia, UBS punishes the victims of the Russian invasion. A significant portion of the annexed Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson oblasts are still controlled by the Ukrainians.

UBS struggles with explanations

UBS spokesperson Serge Steiner made the following statement as a first attempt: The use of credit cards is subject to international sanctions and the requirements of Visa and Mastercard. “These currently do not allow the use of cards in individual regions of Ukraine and in Russia.” But that is not correct, because with a Mastercard from Cembra Money Bank you can easily pay in Pokrovsk.

Steiner then says that each card issuer, i.e. each bank, is responsible for enforcing the sanctions. “As a large international bank, we have to take into account numerous sanctions regimes, such as those of the UN, Switzerland, the EU, the UK and the US.” It is probably different for a purely Swiss institute.

But this statement also does not correspond to the facts: a French and an American journalist have no problems with their credit cards in Donetsk Oblast. In a “Swiss finish,” UBS apparently took sanctions beyond EU and US financial institutions. (aargauerzeitung.ch)