Cards of the Mir payment system faced new difficulties: now they are no longer accepted by banks in Armenia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam. Izvestia writes about this with reference to representatives of financial organizations. The reason for the refusal to work with the Russian payment system is the sanctions of the United States and European countries: banks are afraid of falling under secondary restrictions and are not ready to take risks for the sake of cooperation with the Russian system.
Armenia has completely stopped servicing Mir cards. The local Central Bank left each commercial bank the right to independently decide and assess the risks of cooperation with the Russian payment system, but local banks did not take risks and stopped servicing cards. Similar measures regarding Mir cards were taken in the largest bank in Kazakhstan, Halyk, and in one of the largest banks in Vietnam, BIDV – Mir cards are no longer serviced by them.
Against the backdrop of massive refusals to cooperate, the section on the website of the Mir payment system disappeared, which previously indicated the geography of accepting cards outside of Russia. Now this information is simply not available on the site, the section only talks about the operation of the system inside Russia. Previously, the site claimed that Mir cards can be used in eight countries.
Problems with the Russian payment system began after threats from the United States and the European Union against Turkey, whose largest banks have stepped up work with the Mir system. However, after warning Western countries about cooperation with Russia and possible assistance in circumventing sanctions, Turkish banks began to refuse to deal with the Mir card: the risks of secondary sanctions outweigh the benefits of cooperation with it.