MasterCard, the country’s second-largest issuer of credit cards, is lifting a block on its credit cards issued in the United States that are used on the Caribbean island, effective March 1st.
The block had been in effect for decades, and lifting it is part of an easing of tensions between Washington and Havana. Last month President Obama announced that his administration would lift some trade and travel restrictions with Cuba as part of efforts to change a policy in effect since 1960 that the president says no longer works.
Credit cards issued by MasterCard in other countries have always enjoyed unrestricted transactions in Cuba.
The country’s second-largest credit card issuer says it will continue to block transactions in North Korea involving their U.S. bank cards, while blocking all cards worldwide from transactions in Iran, Syria and Sudan.
The country’s largest credit card issuer, Visa Inc., has not weighed in on using its U.S.-issued cards in Cuba.
