Security requirements for Visa, MasterCard to be lowered, but not eliminated - Shuvalov
GORKI. June 18 (Interfax) - After amendments are made to Russia's law on a national payment system, security requirements for Visa and MasterCard will be lowered compared with the previously proposed variant, but they will not be eliminated completely, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said.
"They [restrictive measures] will be lowered substantially if the federal law is passed that gives the government and Central Bank of Russia the authority [to set deposits], but this will be an entire system that presents serious relief for them, but does not completely eliminate responsibility. A certain responsibility for them remains," Shuvalov said at a briefing following a meeting on Wednesday with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the national payment system.
He did not say how much the deposit payment would be that the companies must pay to operate in the country. Shuvalov noted that on June 25 the Central Bank commission would determine on which basis the technological platform would be developed for the Russian payment system and how it would work with banks and create joint hosting relations.
Shuvalov said he hoped the law, which gives the Central Bank and the government the right to approve regulations and introduce features of the payment systems' operation, would be approved in the coming weeks. "Of course we are not going to create any limitations to force out Visa and MasterCard from the market, but we understand that the situation that occurred, the restrictive decisions that were made, must not happen again," he said.
Shuvalov added that the solutions discussed at Wednesday's meeting should reassure Visa and MasterCard.
"We are expecting the first reading today. If all goes well, the second reading [will be] on Friday. If we pass [the law] soon, then we will immediately show the governmental decree," he said, adding that if the law is passed the government's decree will it clear how much and when the payment systems will pay the security deposit. "They will have significantly easier conditions for carrying out business in the Russian Federation if processing will take place on Russian territory," Shuvalov said.