MasterCard has announced to end the ban on US bank card transactions in Cuba following the guidance of the new policy changes by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury.
The global payment card giant will begin processing the payments by US cardholders in Cuba from March 1, 2015 lifting the block that had been in effect for decades, thereby facilitating the easing of tensions between Washington and Havana.
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MasterCard will work with its US issuers to support its Cuba-related activities and decisions while its US cardholders will contact their banks to ensure the card acceptance on the island before traveling to Cuba.
North Korea will continue to confront the block by MasterCard for US bank cards transactions while Iran, Syria and Sudan will be blocked for cards issued anywhere in the world.
The Miami-based Havana Consulting Group president Emilio Morales said: "This will represent a considerable inflow of money to Cuba. We will see many Miami Cubans spending on credit which in other times they could not."
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