Following years of international sanctions and internal strife, Syria has successfully trialed electronic payments using Mastercard and Visa.<\/p>\n
Reconnecting to these networks is no small feat. Visa previously stated that it would need to build substantial infrastructure<\/a> to connect Syria\u2019s financial institutions to its network and bring issued cards up to modern standards. This includes security features such as EMV chips and tokenization, as well as digital capabilities like integration with digital wallets.<\/p>\n The Visa and Mastercard payment trials were conducted in Damascus<\/a> at an event hosted by Syria\u2019s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The goal of the integration is to connect to the payments giants\u2019 global systems, spur financial inclusion for consumers, and provide a boost to small businesses.<\/p>\n Small Business Beneficiaries<\/p>\n Syria\u2019s economy was severely impacted after former President Bashar al-Assad launched a crackdown on anti-government protests, triggering international backlash. Many countries imposed sanctions on Syria and its central bank. Combined with the effects of the subsequent conflict, key segments of the country\u2019s infrastructure were destroyed and many financial institutions were left isolated.<\/p>\n Although some sanctions were lifted following al-Assad\u2019s removal from office last year, Syria still faces a long road to recovery. Small businesses were among the hardest hit by the sanctions, making them key potential beneficiaries<\/a> of the Visa and Mastercard integration.<\/p>\n Beyond enabling more efficient payments, both networks also offer a wide range of tools for small businesses. For example, Visa\u2019s services span everything from tap-to-phone payment solutions to credit card dispute management tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Global Digital Economy<\/p>\n The payments giants\u2019 expansion into Syria is expected to bring much-needed infrastructure to a recovering economy. However, it comes at a time when many regions are increasingly questioning the dominance of Visa and Mastercard.<\/p>\n For instance, the European Central Bank raised concerns that these U.S.-based networks process over 60% of card transactions in Europe, and has signaled plans to strengthen regional payment systems to reduce reliance on them<\/a>.<\/p>\n While these efforts reflect broader geopolitical and economic considerations, reducing dependence on Visa and Mastercard remains challenging. Much of their reliance stems from the same dynamic now drawing Syria into their networks. Connecting to these systems means access to deeply embedded global financial infrastructure<\/a> and the wider digital economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following years of international sanctions and internal strife, Syria has successfully trialed electronic payments using Mastercard and Visa.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[11325,39454,34986,37409,95,3495],"class_list":{"0":"post-114181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-credit","9":"tag-credit-card","10":"tag-digital-payments","11":"tag-mastercard","12":"tag-syria","13":"tag-visa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116574825152457644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}