Syria records its first Visa card payment in 15 years as Mastercard reconnects too

Syria has now logged its first credit card purchase in 15 years, with President Ahmed al-Sharaa paying for coffee using a Visa card. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the more important part is that Visa and Mastercard are back testing live international card transactions in the country, which is the first real signal that Syria’s payments stack is being reconnected to the global network.

1. Visa said it successfully tested a live international card transaction in Syria, working with the Central Bank of Syria, Fransabank Lebanon, and Paymera. The company framed this as a step toward letting visitors use their Visa cards inside the country, which is the part that matters operationally: a test transaction is not market access, but it is the start of market access.
2. Mastercard also said its global network has reconnected to Syria’s payments ecosystem. Mastercard and QNB Syria announced they processed an international card payment for the first time in more than 15 years, which puts both major card schemes back into a market that had been cut off from global finance since 2011.
3. Syria’s disconnection began after President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011 triggered sweeping Western sanctions. The sanctions, together with the conflict, damaged infrastructure and the industrial base, and reduced the economy to less than a third of its 2011 value.
4. After Assad’s removal from office last year, the U.S. and European governments eased economic restrictions on Syria. The U.S. Treasury has since said American financial institutions may service Syrian clients, process payments involving Syrian banks, and establish correspondent banking relationships. That is the compliance gate PSPs and banks care about: card acceptance follows policy changes, but correspondent banking is what lets settlement and processing become more than a headline.
5. Visa says it will need to build substantial infrastructure to connect Syria’s financial institutions to its network and bring issued cards up to modern standards. That includes EMV chips, tokenization, and digital wallet integration, plus tools for small businesses such as tap-to-phone and credit card dispute management. Mastercard also said it is offering a broad range of tools to small businesses in the area.

Syria is also getting its first super apps: My Syria and Labby. Both are mobile platforms plugged into the international payments ecosystem, with My Syria focused on property management and short-term rentals, and Labby combining ride-hailing, food delivery, e-commerce, and digital payments. For payment providers, that is usually where volume starts to show up after the ceremonial coffee has been paid for.