American Express, PayPal join payments industry boycott of Russia

American Express and PayPal have suspended operations in Russia and Belarus.

The moves over the past two days came after Visa and Mastercard took similar steps on Saturday.

"In light of Russia’s ongoing, unjustified attack on the people of Ukraine, American Express is suspending all operations in Russia," the Amex public relations office said Sunday in an emailed statement.

Early Monday, PayPal made a similar announcement.

"PayPal has been working closely with governments and partners to actively comply with all applicable laws and sanctions," President and CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement. "Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia."

PayPal will continue work to process customer withdrawals for a period of time, ensuring that account balances are dispersed in line with applicable laws and regulations, Schulman's statement said.

The moves are part of broader efforts by the private sector, either voluntarily or in response to government sanctions, to limit or halt business in Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Globally issued American Express cards will stop working at merchants or ATMs in Russia. The ban includes cards issued locally in Russia by Russian banks; those cards will no longer work outside of the country on the American Express global network. American Express is also terminating all business operations in Belarus, which has aided Russia in its attack.

"Over the past few weeks, we have been working hard to back our colleagues and customers in these countries. While this decision will have an impact on them, we will continue to do what we can to support them," Amex said in its statement.

American Express' partners in Russia include Sberbank, Russia's largest bank and one of the world's largest merchant acquirers. American Express and Russia expanded their collaboration in 2021 to include more merchant locations and Sber ATMs that dispense rubles.

Visa and Mastercard on Saturday suspended operations in Russia. The companies earlier in the week banned a group of sanctioned Russian banks from using the U.S. card brands' networks. Mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay have also shut down operations tied to Russian banks.

Some impacts of the payment bans are already being felt in Russia, such as long lines at ATMs and delays in payments processing for commuter rail services.