Belarusbank imposes restrictions, commission on Mir cards

MINSK. June 15 (Interfax) - Belarusbank, the largest state bank in Belarus, has imposed restrictions on cash withdrawals and introduced a commission for cards from the Mir payment system.

"We advise that as of 4:00 p.m. on June 14, 2022 the bank is imposing a restriction on cash withdrawals on Mir payment system cards issued by nonresident banks at the bank's ATMs in the amount of 500.00 Belarusian rubles per week on one card," the lender announced on Tuesday.

"We are also introducing a commission for cash withdrawal transactions in Belarusian rubles at cash dispensing points at bank branches in the amount of 15% of the transaction amount," Belarusbank said.

Belarusbank is the fifth Belarusian bank to impose a limit on Mir cards. Such restrictions were imposed earlier by Belagroprombank, Belgazprombank, BelVEB and Resheniye Bank.

Belarusbank, which has been in operation since 1995, accounts for more than 40% of the assets of the country's whole banking system. The State Property Committee owns 99.11% of the bank.

In 2021, the European Union, UK, Canada and Switzerland prohibited the provision of investment services, loans and credit with duration of more than 90 days, as well as insurance and reinsurance services to Belarusbank.

The operator of the Mir card system is the National Payment Card System (NPCS), which was established by the Russian authorities in 2014, after the imposition of a number of sanctions against Russia. NPCS announced the issue of the first Mir cards in December 2015.

The official exchange rate for June 14 was 2.5538 Belarusian rubles/$1.