The Russian government announced that in order for Visa and MasterCard to continue operating in the country without paying a huge security deposit, the card companies just need to do one thing: find a Russian payment system deemed “of national importance” to process their transactions.
According to the Moscow Times, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree stating the new guidelines on July 15, and it was published on the government’s website on Tuesday.
The back and forth between the two card companies and Russia began back in May, when Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law that paved the way for the creation of a national payment system to replace foreign players.
As reported by the news source, the law would also have forced international payment systems to submit a large security deposit to the Central Bank to keep operating in Russia. At the time, Morgan Stanley analysts estimated that the joint deposit for Visa and MasterCard could amount to $2.9 billion, which is five times more than their annual revenues in Russia.
Just about one month ago, Russia announced that the nation would reduce the size of deposit payments required for MasterCard and Visa to operate in Russia.
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