ArmInfo.The refusal of some countries to service Russian Mir bank cards does not meet the common interests, says Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the RF Central Bank. According to her, Russia continues to explain to partners that everyone is interested in creating "working payment systems."
On April 10, Nabiullina spoke at a plenary meeting of the State Duma with a report on the work of the Central Bank in 2023. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Irina Rodnina raised the issue of World cards. She indicated that "formally friendly countries like Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan" also refused to work with them. The deputy asked what measures the Central Bank would take in this regard.
Nabiullina responded that Russia continues to dialogue with friendly countries about preserving infrastructure and finding alternative solutions.
"For known reasons, I will not disclose what alternative solutions we are working on. But we explain to our partners that it is in our mutual interests to create such working payment mechanisms," Nabiullina said. - They are also interested in expanding tourist flows from Russia, they are interested in (money - editor's note) transfers."
Speaking about retaliatory measures, the head of the Central Bank did not allow the possibility of <both restrictions and the introduction of bans>. However, according to Nabiullina, they should be considered as a last resort if certain countries "do not behave constructively and do not work in search of alternative mechanisms."
As the Parliamentary Newspaper previously wrote, Armenian banks have stopped working with the Mir card. The Kremlin believes that Yerevan made this decision under pressure from Washington. Kyrgyzstan also suspended the service of Russian cards. They said that this is only for a while: Bishkek and Moscow are looking for a solution to the problem that suits everyone.
From March 30, the Armenian side suspended the interconnection of the national card systems of Armenia and Russia - ArCa and MIR. The official statement noted that this decision was made by the banks of Armenia, and not by the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, which is quite doubtful due to the presence of a specific date for the suspension of services.
However, cards of the <MIR> system in the country will be serviced and issued by VTB Bank (Armenia) exclusively in the ATM and POS network of this bank. To date, the bank has issued over 188 thousand MIR cards, including pension cards. The bank's service infrastructure includes 201 ATMs and 54 POS terminals. The bank's branch network consists of 53 branches. According to financial analysts, despite the reduction of pension cards, recently there has been a significant increase in demand for VTB (Armenia) <MIR> cards from the population, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, which is certainly associated with high business activity and strong ties between Armenia and Russia.
