ST. PETERSBURG, July 2 /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s national payment card system will be launched in the third quarter of 2015, according to a schedule set by the country’s monetary regulator, a Central Bank official said on Wednesday.

All measures required to issue new cards will be completed by that time, Central Bank National Payment System Department Director Timur Batyrev told an international banking congress.

Russia has recently adopted a law on creating the national payment card system and ensuring the uninterrupted operation of international payment systems.

The law was adopted after Visa and MasterCard said they would block card operations by Rossiya and SMP banks blacklisted by the US administration as institutions with key shareholders close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions were intended to influence Putin’s policy on Ukraine.

The national payment card system will be based on the Russian Central Bank’s settlement and clearing center. By now, a working version of a new card has been prepared and an operator of the new national payment card system has been established.

With the new system in place, Russian payment card transactions internally will be processed by the national system while international transactions will be administered, as now, by Visa and MasterCard.

 

Public sector will get national payment cards first

 Pensioners and public sector workers will be among the first to get national payment system cards, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Georgy Luntovsky said on Wednesday.

This measure will help stimulate the issuance of new Russian payment system cards, the Central Bank official said.

“We are planning to introduce stimulation methods (for the issuance of national payment cards). In particular, pensions and wages of public sector workers will be remitted to national payment system cards,” Luntovsky said.

“As for pensions, this measure will help cover 40 million pensioners,” the Central Bank official said.

 

Russia’s Central Bank mulls possible creation of payment system within Customs Union

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) mulls possible creation of a payment system within the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, CBR First Deputy Governor Georgy Luntovsky told reporters.

“We are discussing this issue within the Customs Union and it would be interesting to implement this project together with our partners from Kazakhstan and Belarus. I believe that it will be fulfilled,” Luntovsky believes.