CBR: agreement to be reached on Mir card acceptance with another two countries this summer

MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax) - Agreements should be reached with two more countries this summer on acceptance of Mir cards, First Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) Olga Skorobogatova said at the "Regulation of commercial banks by the Bank of Russia" conference organized by the Association of Banks of Russia.

"We see that we have no problems inside the country, but our citizens go and will continue to go abroad, and, of course, the 10 countries that accept [the cards] are not sufficient. We definitely want tourist countries to accept the Mir card. I already said that in addition to the 10 countries, we have two other countries with which we are in working talks with at the moment. These are some of the more well-known tourist countries, we plan to reach an agreement in the summer, and they will gradually organize their infrastructure to accept Mir cards," Skorobogatova said.

In April, Skorobogatova said that the National Payment Card System (NPCS) was working to launch Mir cards in Cuba and two other countries, which have not yet been disclosed.

Mir cards are currently accepted in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The NSPC, which is the operator of Mir cards, was created by the Russian authorities in 2014 after a number of sanctions were imposed on Russia. NPCS began issuing the first Mir cards in December 2015.