ANKARA, August 28. /TASS/. Turkish business may adjust the Mir payment card of Russia’s National System of Payment Cards (NSPC) for trade operations in national currencies between the two countries, Russia’s ambassador to Turkey Alexei Yerkhov told reporters.
"Now in Russia they have officially launched a new card of the Mir payment system. It is not linked with Visa or MasterCard. It is in rubles and is currently operational only in Russia. But I am sure that as the system develops, the Turkish business will manage to adjust it to trade in the national currencies," the diplomat said.
"Turkish entrepreneurs never give up a deal they can close. Turkish airlines fly everywhere where it is profitable. They will never miss their profits," the ambassador said.
In 2014, Russia’s faced the need to create its own national payment system after Visa and MasterCard stopped service of cards of several Russian banks that came under Western sanctions.
The country adopted the law on the National System of Payment Cards. Under that law all international payment systems were obliged to transfer processing of its Russian transactions to the NSPC by March 31, 2015.
MasterCard and Visa completed the transfer of processing to the NSPC for domestic operations by mid-2015.
The NSPC was established on July 23, 2014 and operates Mir national payment cards. It is wholly owned by the Central Bank. NSPC has been operating in Russia since April 2015. At present almost 100 Russian banks issue and service Mir cards.