Intra-Russian card transactions started to use National Card Payment System for processing, which aims at reducing Russia's dependency on foreign payment systems, Sputnik News reports.
The first batch of cards is to be issued in the third quarter of 2015 reports the director of the Central Bank National Card Payment System department, Timur Batyrev. 100 million national payment cards are planned to be issued by the Central Bank over the next two years.
It is to be reminded that the decision to pass to the National Card Payment System was in response to the European Parliament call to the EU member states to exclude Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) financial transaction system.