Three state-owned banks in Turkey plan to leave Russia’s mir payment system, amid U.S. warnings and pressure from countries that use the service to abandon it, they write. BloombergIt quoted a senior Turkish official as saying:
Turkish television station NTV reported on Wednesday that there are no banks in the country that accept the Mir payment system.
According to Bloomberg, Turkiye Halk Bankası, TC Ziraat Bankasi and Turkiye Vakıflar Bankasi plan to stop making payments through Mir. Their decision comes after the country’s two largest private banks took a similar decision last week.
Turkish President Recep Erdogan discussed an alternative to the Russian mir system with financial officials last week.
Erdogan has yet to join Western sanctions over Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and has signed a UN-backed deal on Ukraine’s grain exports. According to Bloomberg, Russia’s Mir system was dismantled after Erdoğan’s visit to the United States, where he was at the UN. After attending the General Assembly, it marked a subtle shift in his neutral stance.
This week, Turkey – a popular destination for Russians fleeing the war in Ukraine and the mobilization for war declared by Vladimir Putin – is expected to formally announce the end of the Mir cards.
More than half of Russia’s population is estimated to have a Mir card, which Russia began creating in 2015 to avoid Western sanctions following its annexation of Crimea.
Some banks from other Russia-friendly countries, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and TajikistanThey were suspended, Also use of Mir system. Only Armenia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan still accept Mir cards.
The decision to suspend Mir restricts the ability of Russian citizens abroad to carry out card transactions after Western sanctions rendered Russian-issued Visa and MasterCard cards unusable.
The US Treasury warned banks outside the US this month that maintaining the Mir system “risks supporting Russia’s efforts to circumvent US sanctions”.
Publisher: GM
“Evil gamer. Amateur music trailblazer. Alcohol geek. Problem solver. Coffee advocate. Troublemaker. Infuriatingly humble zombieaholic.”