By Andrey Ostroukh
MOSCOW--MasterCard Inc. (MA), the international payment system
company, has agreed with Russia's national card payment system to
process its transactions locally, while its rival Visa Inc. (V) is
working on joining the system in a few months, the Bank of Russia
said Tuesday.
After a sanctions-related issue with Visa and MasterCard,
Russia's lower house of parliament said last year that all the
payment transactions in the Russian Federation should be processed
within the country. Both Visa and MasterCard confirmed they would
like to continue operations in Russia, and were in close
cooperation with the central bank.
MasterCard together with Russia's National card payment system
have connected Russian banks to domestic clearing, so transactions
will be carried out "regardless of external factors," the central
bank said. Visa is working to follow MasterCard steps within the
next few months.
Write to Andrey Ostroukh at andrey.ostroukh@wsj.com
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