Visa to support creation of a payment ecosystem for Syria

Details: Vaughan O'Grady; Category: Enterprise Ecosystems; 08 December 2025; 13756 views

Syria’s Central Bank (CBS) has announced a strategic partnership with Visa to accelerate the country’s integration into the global digital economy. Local press reports say that the agreement was formalised during a meeting at the Central Bank late last week.

Visa says it will launch operations in Syria and support the creation of a future-ready payments ecosystem built on global standards through a phased digitisation plan. The immediate focus will be on working with licensed financial institutions to develop a robust and secure payments foundation. This includes issuing payment cards and enabling digital wallets using global standards, ensuring they are secure and immediately ready for international interoperability.

For merchants, Visa will help enable acceptance through the Visa Acceptance Platform that provides the ability to deploy low-cost, open acceptance solutions like tap to phone and QR codes to rapidly build an inclusive and accessible network.

Visa says the benefits of this move extend to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that form the backbone of the local economy.

Visa adds that it will invest in targeted programmes for capacity building and local talent development. It will also focus on deploying programmes that help local entrepreneurs build and scale new payment solutions on a globally trusted platform and get connected with Visa’s network of regional and global fintech partners.

According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the move apparently follows earlier discussions between CBS and Visa executives in Washington, as well as a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Mastercard in September to develop Syria’s digital payments ecosystem and enhance financial inclusion.

Of course, it’s not been long since Syria was in the middle of a civil war, during which Syrian banks were largely isolated from the global financial system.

Indeed, Reuters notes that in November, the International Monetary Fund visited Damascus and said it would provide technical assistance on financial sector regulation, the rehabilitation of payment and banking systems and rebuilding the central bank's capacity to effectively implement monetary policy for low and stable inflation and supervision of the banking system.

The US and Europe have apparently eased or planned to abandon their sanctions programmes after what was regarded as the end of the civil war in late 2024.