MOSCOW--President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for the
creation of a national payment system, after two major
international payment systems cut ties with a number of Russian
banks after U.S. sanctions were imposed over the annexation of
Crimea.
Citing the example of the national payment systems in Japan and
China, Mr. Putin said: "Why do we not do this? This definitely
should be done, and we will do this."
Speaking to the members of the upper house of parliament he
noted that the Japanese system, which started as a national one,
now operates in 200 countries.
Russian officials have for years discussed this idea citing
possible threats to the national banking system, but it is the
first time the move has received the President's support.
International payment systems VISA Inc. and MasterCard Inc.
Friday cut off Russian Bank Rossiya, which had been mentioned in
the U.S. sanctions, and three more banks, directly connected to
Rossiya, or people on the sanctions list. Both Visa and MasterCard
resumed services with two banks during the weekend, but are still
not servicing clients of Rossiya and its subsidiary Sobinbank.
The holders of these banks' cards can't pay for goods and
services using their cards, but can use them to withdraw cash from
the bank's ATMs or ATMs of other Russian banks serviced by the
United Payment Service, a national network which unifies dozens of
banks.
Mr. Putin said he regrets the payment systems' decision. "This
will simply lead to them losing certain segments of the market,
quite a profitable one," he said.
Write to Alexander Kolyandr at alexander.kolyandr@wsj.com
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