MOSCOW, October 30. /TASS/. Localisation of processing of the Visa payment system in Russia will cost the company about 70 million US dollars, Visa CEO Charles W. Scharf said on Thursday, presenting the company financial results for the past 9 months.

Russia continues the work for the processing localisation and the corresponding law has been signed. But signing of the guaranteed deposit requirements to the payment systems has been postponed until March 31, 2015.

“Russia continues to move towards its goal of controlling domestic processing. Last Tuesday, President Putin signed modifications to the national payment system law, which positions the Russian Central Bank owned national payment card system as the preferred domestic payment processor. The law delayed the implementation of a guaranteed deposit from the end of October 2014 to March 31, 2015 to allow for an appropriate transition,” Scharf said.

“When the national payment card system is utilised, there is no guarantee deposit requirement. We’re working closely with the government and our clients to ensure a smooth transition. We continue to expect to lose a portion of our domestic processing revenues in fiscal 2015 of about $50 million. This is likely to grow up to about $70 million on a full year basis when fully implemented,” the Visa CEO said.

“We continue to work with our clients to support their businesses. We recently signed multiyear agreements with several Russia banks including Sberbank, by far the largest issuing bank in Russia,” Scharf said.