Payments companies ditch Russia🇷🇺🛑 (who’s gonna benefit from this?); Binance’s pivot into crypto payments 👀; The first pharmacy in the Metaverse 🏥

Good Morning FinTech, March 8

Good day Everyone,

And happy Tuesday! I hope Monday wasn’t too harsh for you… If you’re still trying to catch up, here’s a mix of 3 great FinTech stories that will definitely give you a positive boost today:

Payments companies ditch Russia🇷🇺🛑 (who’s gonna benefit from this?)

The news 🗞 Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are all suspending their services in Russia, while American Express said its globally issued credit cards will no longer work in Russia and Belarus.

Mastercard said cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by its network and any Mastercard issued outside the country will not work at Russian stores or ATMs. The same goes for Visa & AmEx cards too.

Cripling the Russian economy 📉 Payments companies’ actions follow a growing wave of global outrage and financial sanctions against Russia. President Joe Biden, in his State of the Union address, announced plans to “cripple the Russian economy” after the central banks moved to freeze hundreds of billions in foreign reserves globally.

Russia has also largely been blocked from moving money internationally through SWIFT.

Early dividends 💸 The sanctions seem to be paying dividends already. Since the invasion of Ukraine, the value of the Russian currency, the ruble, has plunged by more than a third to a record low. That’s pushing up inflation for Russian households, and all the fear has helped cause long lines at ATMs.

But there are a couple of more things to take away from this. Here are some thoughts: