Three banks in Kyrgyzstan, following other financial institutions in Central Asia and throughout the world, have stopped accepting a once-common Russian payment card out of concern for possible international sanctions, Eurasianet reports.
The 24.kg news agency claimed that Kompanion Bank, Bakai Bank, and Doscredobank had made the decision to stop processing transactions on the Russian payment card.
Moscow suffers a setback as banks in allies leave its banking system, despite the fact that these three are minor institutions and larger Kyrgyz banks allegedly still accept the cards.
The Kyrgyz banks were obviously unfazed by a prominent Russian official’s appeal to increase the use of Russian payment systems in Kyrgyzstan, which was voiced only last week during a Russo-Kyrgyz investment summit. Aleksey Overchuk, the deputy prime minister, singled out Mir when he spoke to the necessity of “actively promoting, developing, and expanding networks of banks” in Kyrgyzstan that accept Russian payment methods.
After Visa and Mastercard terminated their operations in Russia as a result of its attack of Ukraine, Mir cards became the preferred means of payment for Russians. But once Vladimir Komlev, the director of issuing business NSPK, was made a target of U.S. sanctions last month, the cards turned into a global security risk.
Even while NSPK stated that everything would carry on as usual, banks all around the world started refusing them after the U.S. Treasury Department warned that they would face sanctions.
In September, the biggest bank in Kazakhstan, Halyk Bank, stopped using them.
In September, the widely used UZCARD payment system in Uzbekistan ceased accepting payments using Russian-issued Mir cards, however, Uzbek Mir cards co-branded with UZCARD continue to function. Unreasonably denying any connection to the restrictions imposed on Russia, UZCARD placed the responsibility on “technical maintenance processes” at a partner bank.
One of Tajikistan’s biggest banks, Dushanbe City Bank, ceased accepting Mir in September and likewise pointed the finger at technological issues.
Only a small number of nations, notably Vietnam, Turkey, and Armenia, accepted the Mir cards before the conflict. According to a story from The Moscow Times on October 18, the region of the world that Mir now covers has decreased by 90% since Washington sanctioned Komlev.
The only nation other than Russia where they can be used without restriction is Belarus.
