MOSCOW, June 25./ITAR-TASS/. Visa and MasterCard are worried that their Russian partners may fail to organize processing in the country by October 31, Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseyev said in a news conference.

“They express concern that this term (of paying the pledge before October 31) will not suit them, but these concerns are mostly connected with the uncertainty whether their Russian partners are ready,” Moiseyev said.

The Finance Ministry can extend the deadline. “We are keeping the deadline for now, but it does not mean that come October 31 and something is underdone there, there will be an execution. If we see that the payment systems have not met the deadline due to external factors, we, of course, will suggest extending the deadline,” Moiseyev said.

In May, President Vladimir Putin signed a law to establish the national payment system after Visa and MasterCard blocked servicing cards of some banks over US and EU sanctions against the country.

Soon after the new law was signed, Visa and MasterCard were told to pay pledges amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars by October 31.

On June 18, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said that the Russian government will reduce the amount of pledges that international payment systems must pay with the central bank in order to continue operating in the country, while Moiseyev said that the payment systems may avoid pledges if they find local partners for transactions processing.

Visa is still thinking of quitting Russia, while MasterCard announced a tender to choose a locally registered provider of interbank processing services.