Russia And India Plan To Mutually Accept Each Other’s Debit & Credit Cards
Mir and RuPay to collaborate over mutual consumer banking
Indian ATMs and terminals may soon start accepting Russian Mir debit and credit cards, while Russia is reportedly planning to reciprocate and begin accepting India’s RuPay cards, according to India’s Deccan Herald newspaper.
Both Russia and India are discussing options for the mutual implementation of interbank transfer services, India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and SPFS, the Russian version of SWIFT. In addition, the two countries are continuing negotiations on expanding the use of their national currencies in bilateral trade and talking of creating a new reserve currency within the BRICS group, which also includes Brazil, China and South Africa.
Alexander Pankin, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister has confirmed that Moscow was negotiating with New Delhi on the use of Mir cards. “The unjustified blocking of all Russian clients by the largest international card payment systems has made it important to expand the geography of Mir cards. We are actively working in this direction,” he said last week, adding that discussions about this are also being held with Egypt, China, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Myanmar, Nigeria and Thailand.
Russian Mir payment cards currently can be used in 11 countries: Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and South Ossetia.
Russia and India are also negotiating a Free Trade Agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes Russia along with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
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