BISHKEK, December 2. /TASS/. A number of Kyrgyz banks that stopped servicing Russian Mir payment cards took such measures out of fear of falling under sanctions from US financial institutions, Kaiyp Kulenbekov, deputy head of the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan said on Friday. He was speaking at the republic’s parliament.

"Such sanctions may affect the servicing of correspondent accounts of our banks abroad," he explained.

For this reason, he said, the full-fledged activity of Kyrgyz banks could be seriously affected due to cooperation with the Mir payment system.

He noted that there was no pressure from the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan on the decisions made by commercial banks regarding Mir cards.

"Banks made decisions to suspend servicing Russian cards independently, taking into account existing risks," Kulenbekov said.

Of more than two dozen banks operating in Kyrgyzstan, ten have refused to conduct transactions with Mir cards. These are the state Aiyl Bank, Bakai Bank, Bank of Asia, Demir Bank, Doscredobank, Kapital Bank, Kompanion, CB "Kyrgyzstan", Optima Bank and KICB.