Cards are back: inside Syria's payments reboot

At a ceremony at the Four Seasons in Damascus on May 9, 2026, the Ministry of Communications ran the first live trial payments over the global Visa and Mastercard networks since cards stopped working in Syria more than fifteen years ago. The same event launched Paymera, the national payments network that links local transactions to the global card rails.

How we got here — the full chain

1. July 2025: the Ministry of Communications and the Central Bank sign an MoU to develop digital financial services.
2. September 2025: Mastercard signs an MoU with the Central Bank to help develop a national payments ecosystem.
3. December 2025: Visa announces a roadmap with the Central Bank — cards, digital wallets, Tap to Phone, QR acceptance.
4. January 2026: Mastercard licenses QNB Group to run issuing and acquiring in Syria.
5. February 2026: Syria signs a cooperation agreement with Visa at its San Francisco headquarters.
6. May 4, 2026: the Central Bank formally allows licensed banks and payment companies to work with global networks.
7. May 9, 2026: first live transactions in Damascus.

The scale of the rollout

Paymera reports roughly 4,200 POS terminals deployed today, with a stated plan to reach 50,000 by the end of 2026 — accepting local cards, international cards, and QR payments. Alongside it, the Sham Cash national e-wallet continues its rollout, and SWIFT reconnection is restoring correspondent banking.

What it means if you build software

Every product category that assumes 'the user has a card' just became possible: subscriptions, marketplaces, ride-hailing with in-app payment, e-commerce with real checkout. For a decade Syrian apps were cash-on-delivery businesses with a digital front. That constraint is dissolving — and the teams who re-architect for digital payments first will own their categories.