Mir is a national payment system established by the Central Bank of Russia by the law adopted in May 1, 2017. It is currently accepted mostly by Russia-based companies, such as Aeroflot or Russian Railways, though it is gradually becoming popular among foreign companies with Russian operations. The system is operated by the , a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Bank of Russia. The system was devised in 2016 as a way to overcome potential blocks of electronic payments, after several Russian banks were denied services by US-based Visa and MasterCard because of the sanctions regime against them. The first cards working on the Mir system were launched in December 2015. Sberbank, Russia's leading bank, started issuing them in October 2016. By the end of 2016, 1.76 million Mir cards had been issued by 64 banks, rising to 69.8 million by November 2019. Mir is mainly promoted by the Russian government, with legislation mandating that all welfare and pension payments should be processed through the system by January 2018 entering into force on May 1, 2017. Banks were reluctant to issue them, as they feared that their cost might be higher compared to cards belonging to more established payments systems. The system was also introduced in Armenia and South Ossetia and in 2019 in Abkhazia and Turkey.
Mir Card acceptance in other countries
Vietnam
NAPAS and NSPK have agreed to accept payments using Russia’s MIR card in Vietnam. The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam and Vietnam - Russia Joint Venture Bank will be the first banks in the NAPAS system to provide services allowing MIR chip cardholders to pay via BIDV’s POS network and withdraw cash through VRB’s ATM network in Vietnam.
Thailand
NSPK in talks about using Mir payment cards with banks in Thailand. "The National Payment Card System, the operator of the Mir payment system, is in talks with a number of the largest banks in Thailand, including Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank, Siam Commercial Bank, about the possibility of using their ATMs to withdraw cash and carrying out payments using Mir cards; as well as servicing in trade and enterprises operated by these banks."
United Kingdom
MIR Card payment system, developed by Russia, is set to hit the European market. It will launch a pilot project at the Russian-British business forum in London. PayXpert will become the first acquirer of MIR cards in Europe, and the UK will be the first country where the system will operate, according to one of the organizers of the business event, the Roscongress Foundation. “The launch of our joint project with PayXpert is the first and foremost step in the development of MIR acquiring in Europe, which will lay the foundation for new promising trends in the foreign expansion of Russian payment cards,” said CEO of the MIR payment system Vladimir Komlev.
Tajikistan
Amonat Bank, the operator of the Tajik national payment system, Korti Milli, has announced the launch as part of a nationwide Tajik strategy to encourage the use of card payments in place of cash. MIR cardholders will now be able to make transactions via Amonat Bank terminals throughout Tajikistan. In support of the introduction of MIR cards into Tajikistan, the Deputy Director General of the MIR payment system, Sergey Bochkarev, became the first cardholder to withdraw cash from an Amonat Bank ATM at the Payment Technologies Forum in Dushanbe. “The integration between MIR and Korti Milli has been successfully completed, with the first MIR cards transactions already carried out in Tajikistan. The next stage will be for the members of Korti Milli to have their ATMs and POS terminals accept Russian cards,” said Sergey Bochkarev. “It is also essential that, in the future, our cooperation will enable Korti Milli members to issue cards with the MIR payment application - which will allow cardholders to use cards not only in Tajikistan but also in Russia, as well as in the other CIS countries with which MIR is integrated.”
