Visa and MasterCard remain in Russia

Visa and MasterCard payment systems remain in Russia. According to Vedomosti, representatives of the management of both companies stated this. According to them, in negotiations with the First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, a preliminary agreement was reached on new working conditions in Russia.

“Our proposals were adopted quite favorably, we received preliminary approval of these initiatives from the government, but, of course, the decisions that will be made now, they depend primarily on the coordination that will be carried out directly with the president,” Ilya Ryaby, CEO of MasterCard in Russia, told Interfax. “Of course, we are ready to work in Russia, we have held a very productive meeting, and we hope that the compromise option will be found,” RIA Novosti quotes VISA CEO in Russia Andrew Torre.

Siluanov said that Visa and MasterCard were invited to the government "to ensure the regime for establishing relations with Russian payment systems for six months so that it is a Russian company, purely Visa or MasterCard", RIA Novosti reports within a year-semi. According to the minister, both companies said that they want to continue working in Russia, despite the problems in connection with the new legislation on the national payment system, in particular, with the requirement of interim measures. The question of creating a Russian operator represented by Visa and MasterCard will take time, the minister said. Up to this point, the company "is ready to work with current payment systems."

The Russian government heard the proposals of international payment systems and is ready for interaction, Siluanov said. “We will report to the country's leadership,” he said, “and in the near future we will find a solution that arranges both MasterCard with Visa and the Russian operator.”

Negotiations were held on Friday as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, ITAR-TASS reported. The interfax source said that the general director of the Group of Central and Eastern Europe and Africa Visa Kamran Siddiki and the President of the Development of European Mastercard Markets Bella Stvechanski participated in them. On the eve of the PMEF fields with representatives of both companies, the chairman of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Finance, met.

On April 3, Putin instructed the government and the Central Bank in a month to make all the necessary decisions to create a national payment system. On April 25, the law was adopted by the State Duma , and on April 29 - approved by the Federation Council. On May 5, Putin signed a document .

Putin expressed the idea of ​​creating the national payment cards system after March 20, the United States imposed sanctions against Russia Bank . After that,Visa and MasterCard ceased to conduct operations of customers of the Rossiya Bank, SMP Bank, as well as their subsidiaries - Sobinbank and investkalbank. A few days later, the restrictions were left only for the Russian Bank. However, at the end of April , Visa again blocked operations on cards of the SMP Bank and Investkalbank.