Visa has tested its first live international transaction in Syria, working with Fransabank Lebanon and Paymera.
The test was conducted with Lebanon-based Fransabank acting as the acquiring financial institution and Paymera supporting the local payment infrastructure. It represents an initial step towards enabling international card acceptance in Syria, a market that has been largely disconnected from global card networks.
Regulatory background and timeline
The transaction test follows a strategic vision that Visa announced in December 2025 to include Syria in the global digital economy. Since then, Visa has held its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners, and policymakers in Damascus in February 2026, where an agreement was signed with Syria's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
H.E. Mohammed Safwat Raslan, Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, said that both national payments ecosystem modernisation and international payments integration are part of Syria’s financial infrastructure development measures.
Compliance, risk management, and operational controls will remain central to guarding the integrity of payment and settlement operations as the initiative progresses.
Visa stated the company has taken steps over recent months to assist the reintroduction of digital payments in Syria, maintaining applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. In addition, Visa plans to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria.
Social context and ecosystem implications
Syria’s readiness to reconnect to the global financial system comes after a long period of economic interdictions that followed the 2011 conflicts, when the US, UN, and the EU imposed a series of sanctions. The prohibitions made international transactions unavailable to Syrians and constrained the population to rely on a cash-only system.
For Syria's financial sector, renewed access to international card networks could support tourism and cross-border commerce, both of which have historically relied on cash-based transactions in the absence of card acceptance infrastructure. The test also signals continued engagement between international payment networks and Syrian regulators following the easing of some restrictions on the country's financial sector.
