Russian banks to install terminals for Mir cards in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey

To do this, banks, commercial and service companies will need an intermediary with the necessary licenses in the host country. RBC was informed of this by two sources in the banking market, without disclosing the names of the lending institutions.

According to one of the interlocutors of the publication, the bank sees demand in countries where the flow of Russian tourists has been maintained and increased. He added that the bank is considering the possibility of serving service and foreign trade companies (TSE). The second interlocutor said that initially his credit institution would install payment terminals in tourist places: hotels, supermarkets and others. According to one of the sources, banks can already test this type of transaction.

Acceptance of cards in POS terminals of Russian banks is possible according to two schemes:

• during the first, the acquiring bank concludes an agreement with an intermediary, the latter signs a contract with a store, hotel, etc. and installs a POS terminal for a credit institution on it. The money of the buyers under this scheme goes to the account of the intermediary, which is opened in the acquiring bank. The intermediary converts the received rubles into the desired currency. He transfers them to the seller’s settlement account, for which he can collect a commission.
• under the second scheme, the company draws up a power of attorney for an intermediary. The intermediary opens a ruble account for the trader and concludes an acquisition agreement with the bank on his behalf. He then takes the POS terminals and installs them at the merchant.

Pavel Ickert, a lawyer at Ickert and Partners, said that the scheme does not go beyond the legal norms for banks and NPS: its effect is limited to the borders of Russia.

He stressed that the intermediary’s actions in this case must comply with the legislation of the country in which he performs his duties.

There are risks of sanctions for assisting in the acceptance of Mir cards for an intermediary, but there are no practical examples of their introduction, the specialist pointed out.

In September, banks in Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam and Uzbekistan limited Mir card service amid reports from the US Treasury Department about the risks of secondary sanctions. The Central Bank of Armenia left the banks the right to make decisions on the service of Mir cards.

On October 28, the Kyrgyz Credit and Investment Bank temporarily suspended the card service of the Russian payment system Mir. Three days earlier, the State Bank of Kyrgyzstan, Aiyl-Bank, and before that, Doskredobank and Bakai Bank, stopped accepting Mir cards.