New MasterCard restrictions on crypto transactions, ICO, forex trading and binary options, come into force on October 15. VISA will introduce similar measures in December.
Payment companies MasterCard and VISA intend to reconsider their attitude to the use of bank cards issued by them for a number of companies operating in the field of forex trading, binary options, cryptocurrencies and ICO. Back in April, MasterCard drew attention to a high degree of risk when working with such tools and set a period for challenging payments for them to be 540 days. A similar announcement has now been made by VISA.
Payment giants are not talking about a total ban. However, both payment system operators were inclined to recognize all the transactions mentioned as high-risk transactions. That is, attention to such transactions and the thoroughness of their monitoring are further enhanced.
MasterCard has notified counterparties of a new policy regarding these transactions earlier and introduces a new policy as early as Monday. And VISA sent a message to its partners that transactions related to forex trading, cryptocurrency, binary options, and ICO will be classified as high-risk from December 2018.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
- According to sources familiar with the situation, we are talking primarily about transactions related to companies from various questionable from the regulation and compliance points of view with the standards of jurisdiction. These companies primarily include brokerage firms or unregulated crypto exchanges. Payment operators suspend relationships with such customers until they find a viable alternative.
- At the same time, VISA and MasterCard are very positive about the distributed ledger technology, both companies actively study and apply it. Mastercard is generally one of the leaders in the number of applications for blockchain patents.
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