MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. The international payment system MasterCard will process its intra-Russian transactions through Russia’s National Payment Card System, the Bank of Russia said on Monday.

MasterCard signed a relevant agreement with Russia’s National Payment Card System on December 30, 2014, the Russian Central Bank’s press office said.

“The conclusion of this agreement allows for a staged transfer of MasterCard intra-Russian transactions to processing by the National Payment Card System,” the regulator said.

The signing of these documents marks an important practical step towards implementing the first stage of the National Payment Card System’s strategy for creating an operational payment clearing center to process international payment operators’ intra-Russian card transactions, the Bank of Russia said.

MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga said earlier that the Russian Central Bank would become the sole center in Russia for settling MasterCard transactions.

“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.