MOSCOW, August 14./ITAR-TASS/. The central bank may extend the deadline when MasterCard and Visa must pay security deposits as none of them has chosen a partner to process cards in Russia to the beginning 2015 from October 31, business daily Vedomosti reported on Thursday citing sources.

Under current law, the systems must pay security deposits equaling 25% of their average daily turnover to the central bank by October 31, but the deposits can be reduced to zero if the systems find a partner among nationally important card operators.

A source at one of Russia’s payment systems told the daily that the deadline for the deposits can be shifted quoting Vladimir Komlev, head of the National Payment System. A director of a card processing department at a large bank also heard about changing the deadline, Vedomosti reported.

In May, President Vladimir Putin signed a law ordering to establish a national payment system after Visa and MasterCard stopped servicing cards of some Russian banks as part of US and EU sanctions against the country. Soon after the new law was signed, Visa and MasterCard were told to pay deposits amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Currently Visa and MasterCard are holding tenders to choose a local partner.