Visa, Mastercard Suspend Service In Crimea

Visa Inc (NYSE: V) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE: MA) announced Friday that the companies are suspending products and services in Crimea.

"Due to the latest U.S. sanctions imposed against Crimea by Executive Order 13685 of December 19, 2014, Visa is now prohibited from offering Visa-branded products and services to Crimea. This means that we can no longer support card issuing and merchant/ATM acquiring services in Crimea," Visa said in a statement reported by Reuters.

Visa recently traded at $267.67, nearly unchanged.

Mastercard was down about 0.2 percent at $87.62.

Amid the news, Russia has moved forward with an alternative to the SWIFT payment and messaging system for banks. "The new service was launched in order to ensure smooth and safe transmission of financial messaging within the country, and is another step towards improving the system of services provided by the Bank of Russia,” according to a translation from RT.