The Central Bank of Venezuela and the country's banking sector regulator SUDEBAN decided to launch their own payment system and halt Visa, Mastercard and Maestro operations by the end of January 2020, local media reported.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media that from 30 November 2019, operations on debit cards of these three systems should be terminated, Banca y Negocios news portal said. The same procedure with credit cards should be completed by the end of 30 January 2020.

SUDEBAN instructed financial institutions to create an independent payment system in the light of the recent US sanctions against Venezuela and new threats, according to the report.