Visa Conducts First Live Card Transaction Test in Syria, Boosting Payment Options

Abdelrahman Amr

Last updated 27-08-2026

4 min

Visa completed Syria’s first live international card transaction test on 26 August 2026.

The move could let visitors use foreign bank cards in Syria again.

Officials called it a step to “modernise” payments and reconnect with global networks.

Visa, Fransabank and Paymera stressed compliance, governance and “operational integrity” throughout the process.

It is only a first step; wider card acceptance still needs regulation and merchant readiness.

Visa says it has carried out the first live international card transaction test in Syria, a move that could open the door for visitors to use foreign bank cards in the country again and give the local payments sector a long-awaited push.

The test was announced in Damascus on 26 August 2026. It was done with Fransabank Lebanon acting as the acquiring financial institution and Paymera involved as a partner in the process. In simple terms, this is an early but very practical step towards allowing international card payments to work inside Syria. For travellers and businesses alike, that could be quite a big deal.

H.E. Mohammed Safwat Raslan, Governor of the Central Bank of Syria, described the test as part of a broader effort to modernise the country’s financial infrastructure and connect it more closely with international payment systems. He said the step should help expand payment options and make transactions easier for international visitors. He also stressed that compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential as Syria develops this side of its financial system. That point feels spot on, because in payments, trust is everything.

Visa’s Leila Serhan, who is Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager for North Africa, the Levant and Pakistan, said the company had spent recent months working to support the return of digital payments in Syria while staying within legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. According to Serhan, the successful live transaction test is meant to help pave the way for international visitors to use their Visa cards in the country and marks an important milestone for Syria’s payments ecosystem.

Fransabank’s Nadim Moujaes also framed the development as a first step rather than a finished job. He said the bank sees this as the result of long-running efforts to reconnect Syria to international payment networks, adding that the work will continue under what he called an approved framework with strong standards of governance and operational integrity. Michel Kattouah, chief executive of Paymera, said the return of international card acceptance is an important moment in Syria’s digital transformation and should help connect visitors and businesses with secure payment options.

That said, this did not come out of nowhere. The latest test builds on a roadmap Visa announced back in December 2025 to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. Since then, the company has also held an industry gathering in Damascus in February 2026 that brought together banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers. In the same month, it signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco. Piece by piece, the groundwork was being laid, even if the whole thing must have been a bit of a faff behind the scenes.

For readers who follow startup and fintech shifts with Arageek, there is something quietly important here. I remember speaking with founders at regional events who kept saying payments are never the flashy part of innovation, but without them nothing scales, you know? I reckon they were right. If Syria can steadily rebuild this layer of infrastructure, it may not just help tourism and commerce in the short term, but also give local businesses a more dependable base for digital services in the years ahead.

On the flip side, one successful test does not mean the market has fully turned a corner. Card acceptance at scale still depends on execution, regulation, merchant readiness and confidence across the ecosystem. Still, this was definatly not a small symbolic gesture. It was a live transaction, and in financial services that usually means the conversation has moved from promises to actual plumbing. Well… that is often where real change begins.

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