MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. The Mir national payment system is successfully gathering steam, with 176 Russian banks already participating in it, Vice-Speaker of the Federation Council Yevgeny Bushmin said on Thursday.

"To date, 176 banks are system participants, 97% of ATMs and over 75% of terminals accept the Mir card," Bushmin said.

A draft law related to the next stage in developing the national payment system was forwarded to the State Duma, he added.

Mir is Russia’s national payment system, with its first cards issued in December 2015. It consists of debit and classic cards and supports overdraft options.