On 2 March Center-invest Bank began issuing cards for Russia’s new national payment card system “Mir”. The system is operated by OJSC National Payment Card System, which is wholly owned by the Russian Central Bank. The word “Mir” can be translated as “peace” or “world”.
Center-invest Bank is the first bank in the Rostov region, and one of the first banks in Russia, to participate in the national payment card system. We also took part in the pilot programme.
The first person to be issued a Mir card by Center-invest Bank was German Lopatkin, the Rostov Region’s minister for information technologies and communications.
“We are proud that the Rostov region has Center-invest Bank,” said Mr Lopatkin. “It is always generating innovative ideas, which we are happy to implement. There are many interesting projects in the region, and it’s great that we are launching the latest one today. Some people feel downhearted about import substitution, but for our IT specialists it is a chance to demonstrate their skills.”
The Center-invest Bank Mir card combines the advantages of a deposit account (paying interest of 4% per annum on balances over RUB30,000) with the advantages of a credit card (moreover, with a
“The Russian Mir card is in no way inferior to the international payment systems,” said Sergei Radchenkov, commercial director of OJSC National Payment Card System. “We are now working on adding in various loyalty programmes and services, and we are introducing a whole number of technological solutions, including contactless payments.” Mr Radchenkov went on to emphasise that the card’s main advantage is its reliability.
“Going by advance orders we plan to issue 20,000 Mir cards this year,” said Yuri Bogdanov, Chairman of the Executive Board of Center-invest Bank. “We will be issuing them both for payroll programmes and to individual customers.”