MIR gains support from more than a hundred Russian banks

Russian authorities forced banks and retail outlet to accept MIR. In a letter sent in March 2016 to 51 major banks, the central bank demanded that MIR be accepted everywhere in Russia and that cards be issued to all Russia’s civil servants by 1 July 2016. MIR cards are accepted in Russia only and the prospect is that international operators will allow Russian cardholders to use MIR cards abroad as well, East-West Digital News reports.

However, MIR’s introduction across Russia has created security-related challenges because fraudsters can gain access to the accounts of the holders of these cards through remote service channels at the initial stage of the use of MIR cards. Another hurdle in the way of implementing the system is the high costs for banks to issue MIR cards, with 35%-45% higher than in the case of Visa and MasterCard.

In April 2016, AliExpress became the first global company to accept the new Russian card. The cards of international operators — which have adhered to the NSPC — continue to be issued and accepted in Russia, but their processing traffic has been transferred to the NSPC platform.