WASHINGTON, December 4. /TASS/. The Russian Central Bank will become the sole center in Russia for settling MasterCard transactions, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga said on Thursday.

“Through the Central Bank,” Banga said in reply to a TASS correspondent’s question about whether MasterCard would make settlements in Russia through the Central Bank or one of Russian banks.

Currently, Russian state-owned banks Sberbank and VTB act as settlement centers for MasterCard and Visa in Russia.

The Russian media reported in November that the international payment systems Visa and MasterCard would lose the right to choose settlement banks in Russia and would be required to place settlements under control of the Russian Central Bank. It was initially planned that the international payment systems would assign clearing and processing to the Central Bank.

According to media reports, the transfer of Visa and MasterCard settlements to the Russian Central Bank’s control was mentioned in a draft three-party agreement between the international payment systems, the National Payment Card System and the Central Bank of Russia.

Under the agreement, the international payment systems will act as operators, the National Payment Card System will perform the processing and clearing functions while the Central Bank will make settlements among participating banks, i.e. will act as a settlement bank for international payment systems.