Following the decision by credit card companies like Mastercard and Visa to stop processing payments from cards issued in Russia, PayPal is now following suit. Consequently, international money transfers via PayPal are no longer possible if the payment is initiated from a PayPal account registered in Russia.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov recently published a letter from the CEO of PayPal regarding this matter.
https://twitter.com/FedorovMykhailo/status/1500022660952203266
With this move, PayPal is terminating its remaining services in Russia, after domestic transactions had already been disabled since 2020. Furthermore, it is no longer possible to create new PayPal accounts from within Russia.
How does this affect conferences?
In theory, individuals from Russia can still register for a conference. However, difficulties will arise during ticket purchase if organizers do not implement restrictions on payment methods for registrations from Russia. In this context, please also note that three banks from Belarus have been excluded from the SWIFT system.
The extent to which such individual configurations for attendee registration are possible depends primarily on the conference software being used. Depending on the provider, organizers may be able to carry out the necessary settings themselves.
Implementing country-specific restrictions in Converia
Note: If you are a ticketing client (i.e., Converia handles payment processing for you), you do not need to make any changes in Converia.
You can restrict a payment method for one or more countries via the "Payment methods" configuration menu item in the Converia backend.
When you click on the menu item, Converia will display a list of all payment methods that attendees can choose from when registering for your conference.
1. Go to the settings for the payment method – in our example, PayPal. There, you will find the "Restrict payment method" tab.
2. Here, click the corresponding button to create a new entry.
3. Ensure that "Country" is selected as the restriction type. Under "Show payment method for," select all countries for which PayPal should be available as a payment method. Therefore, the box must not be checked for Russia and Belarus.
Once you have saved the settings, PayPal will only be available as a payment option during registration for individuals whose countries are not subject to the restriction.
You can use this setting to respond flexibly to any future restrictions or to define additional ones yourself.
How should you handle registrations from Ukraine?
For many conferences, it is common for registration to open months before the event begins.
If individuals from Ukraine have already registered for your conference, their attendance has unfortunately become unlikely. Please do not wait for them to contact you to clarify registration details or cancel their participation.
Do not insist on the stated cancellation policies; instead, refund participation fees in full—even if this results in a slightly higher administrative workload, which should not be an argument in this case. In addition, some conferences offer free participation for individuals from Ukraine, such as the “Evolving Challenges in European Economics” conference, which will take place in Tallinn in June.
If you are already a Converia client, your contact person on the Converia team will be happy to assist you with specific questions. If you have not yet used our software for a conference, please feel free to get in touch with us.
