Since the opening of the border in southeastern Finland, the average cost of a one-time withdrawal has even doubled in some areas.
Russian citizens actively withdraw money from ATMs in Finland using cards from the Chinese UnionPay payment system. This was announced by the Finnish state broadcaster Yle on Friday, August 26.
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“ATMs started emptying very quickly when the border opened in July,” said Risto Lepo, regional manager for ATM operator Nokas.
It is now indicated that many Western companies no longer issue credit and debit cards to Russian citizens. For example, this is how Visa, American Express and Mastercard work.
UnionPay came to Finland in recent years as the number of Chinese and other Asian tourists to Finland began to increase.
Since the opening of the border in southeastern Finland, the average cost of a one-time withdrawal has even doubled in some areas. This creates problems for the company, as it needs to refill ATMs more often.
“For example, we used to fill an ATM in Vaalimaa only once a week, but now we have to go there two or three times a week, or even four times a week,” said Lepo.
This causes additional costs to his company, but not additional income, because it is paid based on the number of withdrawals, not the amount of money withdrawn.
Also, the company cannot fully influence the situation, because restrictions, for example, on the amount of withdrawals, will also harm the main customer base, that is, the local population, because the restriction has to be set for all kinds of cards.
A day before it was reported that Russians are widely using the borders of Estonia or Finland to enter the EU. Since the beginning of a full-scale war in Ukraine, more than 60% of Russians have used these borders.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.