Credit card activism

Money is what keeps the greasy wheel of commerce moving. Without it merchants cannot afford to pay their employees and buy more goods to stay in business. With so much money today involved in e-commerce or in electronic payments it is no wonder that credit card issuers and banks are able to wield enormous power and it should come as no surprise that sometimes that power gets involved with political causes. Money is more though than what keeps the wheel of commerce moving. Money can also be what determines if a movement or cause is able to sink or swim and not all of these movements are for the benefit of mankind. Today we will take a look at some of what Visa, MasterCard and others do as a form of activism all throughout the world.

Sanctions against a nation are nothing new in today’s world. Typically when sanctions are issued financial institutions follow suit, locking any money that country had in their banks. This happened with Iran and with Russia following their invasion of Ukraine in 2014. In this instance both Visa and MasterCard suspended services to several Russian banks that use their cards. Today a Visa or MasterCard will work in most of the world but will not work in Bulgaria, Burma (Myanmar), Belarus, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, North Korea, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and Zimbabwe, all countries with sanctions levelled on them. Also, if you are associated with ISIS, don’t expect your Visa card to work.

Before we make these companies to be knights in shining armor it should also be noted that they are no different than any other company, that is they are motivated by the bottom line. In spite of sanctions on Iran, MasterCard went ahead and began work with two blacklisted banks in Tehran to issue cards. To be fair, the sanctions were reduced shortly thereafter but MasterCard was still engaged in making an end-around of the sanctions placed on Iran for no gain other than its own and claims that nothing happened and the company has no activity in Iran. (Visa was also involved in talks but was not investigated by the US government).

Activism is not limited to other nations. Whether you agree with them or not WikiLeaks has changed the world. In 2010, in the midst of the firestorm when the first pieces of hacked data were released Visa and MasterCard both suspended payments to the site. Officially Visa said it was awaiting investigation into the business and whether it broke any of Visa’s rules. MasterCard claimed they suspended service due to illegal activity. Both the United Nations and European courts saw it differently and forced the credit card giants to back off.

We cannot fault a company for trying to make as much money as it can as long as it is done legitimately and lawfully. Credit card companies are no different. They are always looking for good PR and a positive spin but their political activism can sometimes go too far, whether we agree with what they did or not. It is dangerous to place the mantle of change on companies, especially ones that wield such enormous clout and can bring enormous pressure to bear on any party. We should leave such things to the diplomats who have much more experience than we do.