Mastercard

Mastercard suspended acceptance of Cuban-issued payment cards in June 2026 alongside Visa, after their shared correspondent banking infrastructure retreated from GAESA-linked exposure ahead of the 5 June 2026 OFAC wind-down deadline. The simultaneous suspension by both major international card networks made card payments in Cuba effectively impossible for tourists and Cuban cardholders, reinforcing the island's dependence on informal cash markets. Mastercard, like Visa, does not issue cards directly; its Cuban suspension was a consequence of the correspondent banks that clear cross-border transactions exiting GAESA exposure, not a direct Mastercard decision.

Mastercard is the world's second-largest payment network, connecting more than 25,000 financial institutions across 210 countries and territories. Founded as Interbank in 1966 and rebranded Mastercard in 2016, it operates payment rails under the Mastercard, Maestro, and Cirrus brands. Its network architecture mirrors Visa's: Mastercard provides the processing infrastructure and brand; member banks handle card issuance and correspondent clearing. This means US secondary-sanctions architecture operates on Mastercard's Cuban capability through the banking tier, not the network itself.

The Cuban card suspension is not Mastercard's first encounter with sanctions-driven network disruption. Russian card issuers were cut from Mastercard's network within days of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The GAESA case follows a similar mechanism but arrives through the correspondent-banking layer rather than a direct network-level expulsion, illustrating how secondary sanctions can achieve comparable outcomes through indirect financial-system pressure.