The Turkish authorities have found an alternative to the Russian payment system Mir. Due to threats from Western countries to impose secondary sanctions for cooperation with a Russian company, this system can now only be used within Russia. As a replacement, Ankara offers Russian tourists to use the local payment system – TROY. Negotiations by the financial authorities to find solutions to this issue are already underway, according to the local publication Aydinlik, citing sources close to the discussion.
The publication claims that the delegations of the central banks of the two countries have already held initial negotiations and are currently exploring the possibility of integrating the Russian financial system into the TROY system. The connection of Russians to the system will not formally be a violation of Western sanctions and will enable Russian citizens to use banking services in Turkey. To do this, they will have to open an account in a Turkish bank, which is integrated with the TROY system; the issue of connecting some Russian banks to the system is also being considered.
The transfer of Mir's stake in TROY will help develop the local system, which, according to the publication, serves about 12 million plastic cards integrated into the system. The development of its own payment system will allow Turkey to reduce dependence on international payment systems – Visa, Mastercard and American Express, a significant share of whose income comes from Turkey.
At the same time, the publication calls accusations of the possibility of circumventing Western sanctions with the help of Mir cards doubtful, since limits were set on all cards from Turkish banks and the only opportunity to withdraw a “really large amount of money” was for those who carried several cards with them. However, even in this case, they did not get away from banking supervision, which could freeze any suspicious transaction. Being deeply integrated into the European banking system, local banks do not want to expose themselves to risks.
The Russian payment system "Mir" actually lost its international status after the European and American authorities threatened all partners of the "Mir" with secondary sanctions. Armenia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam abandoned the system, and now you can use cards without any problems only inside Russia.