Venezuela Strengthens Financial Ties with Russia Through Interbank Connections and Mir Card Integration
Russian Mir payment card. File photo.
The president of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), Calixto Ortega Sánchez, has announced that the Venezuelan financial system has made significant progress in interbank connections between Russian and Venezuelan banks, as well as in the use of Russian Mir cards.
In statements to the Russian media Sputnik, the BCV chief explained that Venezuela has already completed the necessary technological modifications in order to be connected to the interbank messaging system of the Central Bank of Russia.
“This will allow a fluid communication to facilitate import and export transactions in our currencies: the bolívar and the ruble,” Ortega Sánchez said.
Cuba Starts Accepting Russian MIR Payment System Cards at ATMs
Both Russia and Venezuela have been subjected to unilateral coercive measures imposed by the United States and its allies that affect the two countries’ financial transactions. Russia has been suspended from the SWIFT interbank system, the international banking mechanism for immediate payments anywhere in the world.
Mir payment card system
The BCV president further announced that necessary adjustments were completed over the last few months so that Russian Mir cards can be used in Venezuela.
“More than 40,000 payment terminals have already been updated so that the Mir cards can work in Venezuela, in tourist areas,” he explained.
Ortega Sánchez stated that the goal is to make at least 30% of Venezuelan payment terminals compatible with the cards issued by Russian banks, which are denominated in rubles, so that payments can be made in Venezuelan currency.
Mir is a Russian payment system launched in 2014, when Russia first faced a wave of sanctions in connection with the incorporation of the Crimean peninsula, which was approved by the people of Crimea through a referendum.
Since then, US companies Visa and MasterCard restricted operations with some Russian banks. Thereafter, Russian President Vladimir Putin commissioned the National Payment Card System, which became the operator of Mir cards, and began issuing them in December 2015.
(Últimas Noticias) by Kleybergel González
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/KZ
