Visa and Mastercard have just resumed operations in Syria, reconnecting the country to global card payment systems for the first time in more than 15 years. The networks went live on May 9, with Qatar National Bank moving quickly to launch card acceptance and digital payment services.
This return isn’t just about payment technology — it follows a legal and diplomatic reset. On May 11, the European Union formally restored full trade relations with Syria, ending the partial suspension of the EU-Syria Cooperation Agreement that had been in place since 2011. That change helps explain why international payment companies and banks can now reconnect Syrian users to established financial infrastructure.
For households and businesses, this is fundamentally an access story: local bank accounts can once again connect to widely accepted international payment systems for everyday spending, merchant acceptance, and cross-border commerce. Syria is starting to rejoin standard global payment rails, but rebuilding usage after such a long break will still take time.