India & Russia to explore possibility of accepting RuPay and Mir cards for hassle-free payments

• India and Russia are explore the possibility of accepting RuPay (India) and Mir cards (Russia) in each other’s country for hassle-free payments, in Indian rupees and Russian ruble in their respective countries, amid sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow.
• The discussion regarding the opportunity of allowing acceptance of these cards, was held in the recent high level Internal Governmental Commission meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
• The meeting was co-chaired by India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Russia Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.
• Apart from this, the two countries also agreed to explore the possibility of interaction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of National Payment Corporation of India and the Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Bank of Russia.
• Besides, it was also agreed to look at adopting the Russian financial messaging system, Services Bureau of Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia, for cross border payments.
• Currently, the overseas payments from India and vice versa are through the SWIFT network.