Over the past few weeks Russian National Payment Card System (NPCS) reached agreements with American Express, Mastercard and Japan’s JCB about the issuance of co-badged cards.
Announced in June at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, the agreement with Mastercard came as the first international co-badged card project for Russia’s young national payment system. Similar agreements were announced in early July with JCB, then with American Express earlier this week.
In February, Gazprom’s banking arm Gazprombank became the first Russian bank to start issuing JCB cards, noted Russian TV channel RT. In June, the parties expanded the cooperation, as Gazprombank made JCB cards accessible in all its ATMs throughout Russia.
Co-badged Mir cards will be accepted both in Russia, where they will function as Mir cards, and abroad, where they will operate in the same way as standard Amex, JCB or Mastercard cards.
The issuance of Mir, Russia’s new national card, will be an important stage in the development of Russia’s own payment system. The pilot issuance is scheduled for December this year, with at least 20 Russian banks having expressed their readiness to issue it, noted Russian news agency TASS.
