The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has authorized Kazakh banks to conduct transactions with cards of the Russian payment system Mir, the Kazakh Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market reported .
OFAC sent a letter in which it clarified that it did not object to the use of bank cards of the Mir system by individuals, namely citizens who migrated from Russia to Kazakhstan to perform operations that ensure their livelihoods. At the same time, such operations will remain under special control in order to prevent their use to circumvent anti-Russian sanctions.
“Kazakh banks have the right to accept payments, transfers using Mir cards, as well as issue cash through ATMs for individuals.”
The decision to connect to the Russian system is taken by Kazakh banks independently, assessing the risks.
On December 9, Izvestia reported that Russia and Turkey are creating an alternative to the Mir map, it will be presented in May.
Problems with the Russian payment system began after threats from the United States and the EU against Turkey, whose largest banks have stepped up work with the Mir system. In Turkey, banks are trying to avoid sanctions while continuing to accept cards bypassing. So, by the end of September, banks officially finally stopped working with Mir cards, nevertheless, hotels continued to accept cards, despite the threat of sanctions, Izvestia reported, citing representatives of companies and participants in the tourism market.
Turkish, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Tajik, Vietnamese and Kazakh banks refused to cooperate with the Mir system. Partially, only Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan retained work with the system, the section with foreign partners of the system has already been removed from the Mir website. The President of the Russian Association of Electronic Money and Money Transfers, Viktor Dostov, links the refusal to cooperate with too high risks and too low benefits from maintaining relations with the Mir system.