Trial Issue of National Mir Cards

Today, seven Russian banks have begun to issue plastic cards "Mir". The National Payment Card System (NSPK) should compete with the American Visa and MasterCard and secure the financial system of the Russian Federation. Mass production of millions of Mir cards will take place in the second half of 2016.

The first cards were issued by Gazprombank, MDM Bank, Moscow Industrial Bank, Svyaz-Bank, RNKB, Rossiya (sanctions of the US Treasury apply to it) and SMP Bank. In total, several dozen cards were issued, usually for bank employees directly involved in the Mir project.

“The beginning of the issue of cards of the national payment system“ Mir ”is a significant stage in the development of the Russian financial system and ensuring its sovereignty ... We are confident that the Russian payment system will be successful and in demand by consumers and banks,” commented Central Bank Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova.

Card testing was started by the second group of a pilot project of 21 banks, they will begin issuing cards at the beginning of next year. In total, 35 banks are participants in the Mir payment system, including Sberbank, Alfa Bank, and other large banks. There are more than 1,500 ATMs and POS-terminals that accept Mir cards. In order for a regular ATM to accept such cards, you just need to update its software. For example, MDM Bank has already upgraded all its ATMs in Moscow.

In Moscow and the Moscow Region, about 400 stores now accept Mir cards. It seems that the tariffs for using the system do not differ much from the tariffs of Visa and MasterCard. The debit card payment rate for goods and services is fixed at 3-4 rubles, and for other products - 0.5–2% of the transaction amount ( tariffs ).

“Now we plan to focus on the following priority tasks - ensuring the widest possible geography of card acceptance, as well as on preparations for the start of the mass production of Mir cards in the second half of next year,” said General Director of the NSPK Vladimir Komlev. He expressed the hope that the network will develop very quickly, and by the end of III quarter. In 2016, the Mir card acceptance network will reach about 90% of the total card acceptance network in the country. Then there will be a mass issue of Mir cards for state employees and pensioners. In total, in 2016 it is planned to issue 30 million Mir cards .

The “Mir” card will be issued without fail for state employees - this is a requirement of the law “On the National Payment System”. Salaries, pensions, scholarships, cash benefits for military personnel will be credited to the national card. In the future, a card can be used to pay for parking and metro.

The NSPK was created after the introduction of US sanctions and the suspension of the Visa and MasterCard international payment systems in Russia, as well as the threat of blocking the SWIFT interbank payment system. In July 2014, NSPK JSC was established, 100% of the shares of which belong to the Bank of Russia.

National payment systems exist in several countries around the world, including Belarus (Belkart), Ukraine (NSMEP), India (NPSI), Japan (JCB) and China (China UnionPay). It is strange that their system has not yet been in Russia.