Visa and MasterCard move their servers to be able to stay in Russia

Visa and MasterCard move their servers to be able to stay in Russia. 52837.jpeg

Official representatives of Visa and MasterCard payment systems said that the companies were willing to work in Russia. The decision of the companies to stay in Russia involves the transfer of processing centers to the territory of the country, the heads of Russian representative offices of the companies said after meeting with first deputy chairman of the Russian Government Igor Shuvalov and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Russian President Vladimir Putin will make the final decision.

"We are ready to work in Russia," CEO of Visa in Russia Andrew Torre and CEO of MasterCard in Russia Ilya Ryaby said after a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Ryaby also said that the proposals from the payment systems were favorably accepted, but it would be up to President Putin to make the decision. Shuvalov and Siluanov promised to convey the position of the heads of the two companies to the president.

It comes clear from the statements of Siluanov and Shuvalov that the systems agreed to transfer the domestic Russian processing (over 90% of operations) to Russia. Russian daughter companies of MasterCard and Visa will be integrated into the national payment system (NPS), Siluanov said, as quoted by Prime. Shuvalov said that they were willing to finance the works, and MasterCard had already started working in this direction, the Vedomosti newspaper wrote.

According to the publication, MasterCard and Visa are ready to create infrastructure in Russia, if the impending law is canceled or weakened: the law is supposed to introduce gigantic security deposits and fines for the two systems.

Siluanov believes that postponing the law for six months is a reasonable compromise. Shuvalov said nothing on the matter. According to the federal official familiar with the course of negotiations, the system offered a more flexible and less burdensome system of deposits for them, until they begin to comply with the requirements of the National Payment System. "They talked about the cancellation of security deposits, but this is impossible. We must have a mechanism of action in case of new blocking measures," said the official.

If all requirements are met, the foreign payment systems will be integrated into the national system that Russia intends to establish very soon. Earlier, an economic observer of Russian Standard Bank, Sergei Suverov, rated the prospects of creating such a system in an interview with Pravda.Ru:

"I think that it will take at least several months. One should create appropriate infrastructure, legal framework, special clearing centers, build cable communications, etc. This is not a quick process. But this is a logical step that has to be taken to partly win the Western market from payment systems. This will be quite convenient in terms of security. We will not depend on international processing centers and international factors. This is more reliable too, because in case of sanctions or force majeure circumstances, the Russian system will be protected," said the expert.

If the servers and technical infrastructure of foreign payment systems are located on the territory of Russia, it will give greater guarantees of security for the Russian banking system.

Pravda.Ru