'Mir-Mastercard': Russian Payment Card is About to Go Globally

Russia's Mir card will be accepted all over the world in case of successful talks.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia's National Payment Card System (NSPK) and Mastercard are holding negotiations on co-badged cards, to be called Mir-Mastercard, Russian Vedomosti newspaper reported Tuesday, citing bank officials.

According to the media outlet, NSPK and Mastercard will produce 40 million co-badged cards, if the outcome of negotiations is positive. In Russia, the card will operate as Mir, while abroad it will function as a card of the international payment system.

A similar agreement between NSPK and Mastercard was signed in June 2015. The companies agreed to produce Mir-Maestro cards, however, the cards turned out to have a drawback, since the number of venues where Maestro is accepted is limited.

The newspaper added that the Russian Central Bank and NSPK had been holding negotiations with Visa since the end of the previous year. The NSPK reportedly also signed agreements on co-badged cards with Japanese JCB, American Express and Union Pay.

The Mir national payment system started operating in Russia on April 1, 2015. The system was created after Visa and MasterCard stopped service to some credit cards issued by Russian banks due to US sanctions imposed on Russia. Mir, operated by NSPK, seeks to ensure the sovereignty of the national payment industry and secure the processing of domestic transactions using Russian bank cards.