Foreign payment service providers number 15 participants at start of 2025 - Central Bank of Russia

MOSCOW. July 30 (Interfax) - There were 15 foreign payment service providers at the beginning of 2025, the Central Bank of Russia said in its results from monitoring the national payment system for 2024.

The Central Bank has maintained a registry of foreign payment service providers and monitored their respective operations since 2020. The CBR had published the list of foreign payment service providers until April 2024, when the regulator first decided to conceal the list until the end of December 2024. The Central Bank on January 31, 2025, extended the suspension of publications until December 31, 2025, despite which the regulator will continue to maintain the registry, the CBR said.

Central Bank data indicate that there were five foreign payment service providers as of December 2022, namely Bpay (Moldova), Alipay (China), Tenpay (China), Dushanbe City Bank (Tajikistan), and Moneytune (United States).

There were 26 foreign payment service providers at the beginning of 2021, 24 at the beginning of 2022, four at the beginning of 2023, and 10 at the beginning of 2024, according to the Central Bank.

The Central Bank has previously concealed data on foreign companies on its website, with the regulator in April 2022 hiding the list of participants in the Central Bank's financial messaging system (SPFS), Russia's answer to SWIFT, following a new wave of sanctions.