Visa and MasterCard in Russia will lose the right to choose settlement banks

Visa and Mastercard payment systems in Russia may lose independence in the choice of settlement banks, since this function is proposed to be transferred to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, Kommersant writes with reference to sources familiar with the situation.

Earlier it was assumed that during the reform of the Russian payment system, Visa and MasterCard, they will lose the right only to their own clergy and processing. However, recently the Central Bank proposed to transfer control to him over calculations. The proposal itself was formulated in the draft trilateral agreement of international payment systems, the National Payment Card System (NSPK) and the Bank of Russia, which is now under discussion.

If this agreement is adopted, international payment systems will act only as operators, NSPK-processing and clearing functions will be transmitted, and the Central Bank will take the calculations between the banks participating in the systems. In such a situation, which now acts as settlement centers for MasterCard and Visa the largest Russian state banks - Sberbank and VTB - will lose their positions.

According to the sources of the publication, the amount of funds that are placed in the settlement banks of Visa and MasterCard banks participating in the systems is difficult to evaluate unambiguously, and it is not disclosed by companies. The market participants know that Visa has 80 partner banks, Mastercard has about 100, and the amount of funds can vary from several hundred million dollars to $ 1 billion per participant.

The Sberbank and the Bank of Russia refused to comment on the publication. VTB said that they did not receive information about such a VISA decision. Earlier, representatives of VISA stated that their losses from the transfer of processing to Russia can be $ 70 million in 2015. Visa and MasterCard began the procedure for transferring processing into Russia so as not to pay a warranty contribution to the Central Bank, which is necessary for work in Russia. Also, systems have the opportunity to evade the payment of a security deposit to the Central Bank in case of obtaining the status of a national payment system.

In the spring of 2014, a law was adopted on the creation of a national payment card system in Russia (NSPK). This decision was due to the fact that Visa and MasterCard refused to serve maps of a number of Russian banks that fell under anti -Russian sanctions. The security fee to the Central Bank should guarantee the uninterrupted operation of a payment system in Russia.