Russia eases requirements for Visa and MasterCard | Russia Beyond The Headlines

Russia eases requirements for Visa and MasterCard | Russia Beyond The Headlines:



"The Russian Ministry of Finance has submitted a new document to the government establishing the description of payment systems “of national importance”, which makes it technically possible for Visa and MasterCard to obtain this status. All other payment systems without the status of “of national importance” must make security contributions amounting to two days’ worth of transactions in case there is a termination of payments.



The reason for the introduction of such measures was the decision by Visa and MasterCard to terminate services for bank cards issued by banks affiliated with those on the U.S. sanctions list. According to information provided by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, the new version of the Ministry of Finance document features a number of significant amendments: The chips on cards no longer need to be Russian and software may also be bought from the Russian “affiliates” of foreign manufactures.



“At the moment, normal negotiations are taking place over the conditions of further cooperation between international payment systems (IPS), the state, and banks, while new risks are being taken into account,” explains Yury Bozhor, head of the Plastic Cards Department at Russia’s Otkrytie Bank."



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