Russia demands $3.8bn security deposit from Visa and Mastercard

[joshcryer]

46. The assessment fee is 0.11%.

That applies to all volume: http://www.cardfellow.com/blog/credit-card-processing-fees/

$1.9 billion * 365 * .11% = $763 million. And that's where the net comes from.

Their combined Russian revenue in 2013, at 0.1 percent of transaction volume, looks to have been about $724 million, although that may be a generous estimate: Mastercard says Russia accounts for 2 percent of its revenues, a mere $167 million in 2013.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-05-06/the-biggest-loser-from-russia-sanctions-visa

To me $14 billion in income seems unreasonable though the math checks out, I don't think it's profit. For card holders that pay transaction fees (and not the assessment fee which applies to volume) it can go many different ways as per the link I provided, some may just have a flat rate, some make take a percentage, some may have holding fees, whatever. Those fees go to pay for the merchant system overall and I don't think could be considered "profit." Visa and Mastercard could be kicked out of Russia entirely and that merchant system would be used by other card companies, like Russia's nationalized card they're suggesting.