Syria sees first Visa and Mastercard payments in years

Visa and Mastercard said they have carried out their first international card payments in Syria in more than a decade, days after the United States removed the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Mastercard said it and Qatar National Bank Group had processed Syria's first international card payment in more than 15 years. Visa said on Wednesday that it had tested the first live international transaction in Syria with Lebanon's Fransabank and local electronic payments company Paymera.

Paymera said on Thursday that it had carried out the first electronic payment using Visa.

Central bank governor Safwat Raslan posted a video on social media showing Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa paying for coffee by card at a Damascus cafe. Raslan described it as the first Visa card payment in central Damascus after Syria's removal from the US terrorism list.

The United States removed Syria from the list on Monday, rescinding a decades-old designation that carried severe economic restrictions. Since the December 2024 ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad, several Western countries have lifted sanctions imposed after Syria's civil war erupted in 2011.

Sanctions had cut Syria off from the international banking system, including restrictions on dealing with the country's central bank and frozen central bank assets. Damascus hopes the US delisting will help end economic isolation, support integration with global financial systems and attract investment as the country seeks to rebuild.