Some countries refusal to service Russian Mir bank cards against  common interests - Elvira Nabiullina

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.