01 October 2015, 23:51 / Finance

NSPK approved tariffs for Mir cards

Bankers admit that they will have to issue them in any case, and do not think about the benefits Anna Eremina NSPK announced tariffs for national payment cards / A. Gordeev / Vedomosti

The National Payment Card System (NSCP) announced yesterday that its supervisory board (which includes representatives of the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Communications and the FSB) approved the rules and tariffs for the Mir card. Transactions on these cards will take place in November-December, said NSPK General Director Vladimir Komlev, at first the card will be issued by 28 banks.

NSPK offers several types of products: debit, classic and premium (the last two also include credit cards).

Depending on the type of card, different fees are set for transactions using them. The size of the interbank commission - how much the bank servicing the merchant (acquirer) will pay to the bank that issued the card (issuer) - is a very significant issue. The rate for paying for goods and services using the Mir debit card is fixed at 3–4 rubles, and for other products – 0.5–2% of the transaction amount, according to the NSPK message (see inset). That is, this is exactly how much the acquiring bank will pay the card issuer for each transaction.

Individual approach

It follows from the tariffs that with classic cards the client must pay for goods and services for at least 10,000 rubles, and with premium cards - for 15,000 rubles. If this requirement is not met, NSPK will set a commission for the bank corresponding to the lower segment.

“It’s a good idea to regulate card issuance depending on the customer segment,” says a banker in charge of cards at a top-10 bank. He cites the example of one bank that issued only platinum cards to its clients. The commission that the acquiring bank pays for servicing such a card to the issuer is very high, thus the bank that issues premium cards earns more. But this is extremely unprofitable for the bank serving the trade and service enterprise; “it kills acquiring,” he points out.

For Visa and MasterCard cards, the commission is 1–2% of the transaction amount, Nikolai Smirnov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zolotaya Korona, said earlier, if the acquirer pays 4 rubles. per transaction, a low commission will ultimately lead to the fact that everyone will accept the Mir card, but no one will want to issue it.

Banks will not pay fees for joining the NSPK, as follows from the tariffs. Even at the stage of discussing rules and tariffs, the issue of entry fees caused heated discussions. As a result, the NSPK decided to abandon them. However, when connecting to Mir, all banks will have to pay from 300,000 to 600,000 rubles. for setting up a basic configuration, as stated in the tariffs. And also make contributions to the guarantee fund, it follows from the NSPK message, provide irrevocable bank guarantees. If a bank's license is revoked and it does not make payments, then transactions already carried out by its clients (settlements for which have not yet been completed) are paid from the guarantee fund, explains a banker from a large bank.

Will there be problems with Visa cards?

Correspondent of the “Finance” department Anna Eremina on the air of the Dozhd TV channel assures that there will not be

“Contributions are a matter of trust, I hope that the NSPK will also take an individual approach,” points out one of the state bankers. The NSPK tariffs state that the system has the right to establish an individual adjustment coefficient for banks, by which the contribution amount will be multiplied in the range from 0 to 1. The basis for applying an individual coefficient for a bank will be the presence of state participation, a high investment rating, etc.

NSPK will encourage banks to connect to its system through some concessions on tariffs. Banks simply have no other choice; everyone will still have to connect to Mir, explains one of the bankers. A grace period could mean two options, he suggests: “NSPK does not guarantee that everything will work right away, and therefore does not charge a fee for its services, or NSPK waits until the entire system is connected to Mir. I think that by February all banks will be issuing this card.”