ANOSINO, /Moscow Region/. March 2. /TASS/. The issuance of Russian Mir payment system cards in 2022 increased by 60% despite the fact that cards of international payment systems continue to work in Russia, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Olga Skorobogatova said on Thursday.

"When it comes to numbers, the Mir card now has 182 mln issued cards. I must add that this was mainly organic growth, as we continued to process cards from foreign payment systems within the country. We did this on purpose so that consumers would not be shocked by an abrupt transition to the national payment system," she said.

International payment systems Visa and Mastercard announced their withdrawal from the Russian market in March 2022 following the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Later, American Express and Japanese payment company JCB also announced their withdrawal from the country. Cards of these payment systems issued by Russian banks are not accepted for payments abroad or in foreign online stores. In turn, cards issued by foreign banks have stopped working in Russia. At the same time, the cards of all these payment systems issued by Russian banks continue to work in the country, as their operations have been handled by the National Payment Card System since 2015.