CARACAS, June 18. /TASS/: International payment systems Visa and Mastercard will operate on the territory of Venezuela until 20 March 2020, President of the Bank of Venezuela Jose Javier Morales said on Monday.
"The license issued by the US Department of the Treasury for Visa and Mastercard to work in Venezuela, expires on 20 March 2020. We don't know what will happen after that," Morales said.
He added that negotiations are ongoing with representatives of Visa and Mastercard. At the end of May, Venezuelan portal "Banca y Negocios" reported that Venezuela's Central Bank has started developing a national payment system as the country prepares to give up using services of Visa and Mastercard by January 2020.
Venezuela has been going through an acute social-economic crisis in the last several years, accompanied by massive currency devaluation. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that by the end of 2019, inflation in Venezuela may reach 10 mln percent.
