Mir cards stopped working in Kyrgyzstan

Cards of the Russian payment system "Mir" stopped working in Kyrgyzstan from 15:00 (Moscow time) on April 3, reported the Interbank Processing Center, the operator of the national payment system of Kyrgyzstan "Elkart", whose member banks accepted Mir cards.

As noted in the processing center, the decision was made to avoid the risk of secondary US sanctions, since previously a division of the US Ministry of Finance OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) imposed sanctions against the Mir card operator JSC National Payment Card System (NSCP).

Thus, from April 3, the following types of operations will no longer be available to users:

• servicing cards in acquiring devices (non-cash payments at POS terminals and cash withdrawals at ATMs);
• transfers from card to card;
• e-commerce: Internet payments from cards to accounts of trade and service enterprises (TSPs).

At the same time, the possibility of making money transfers between Kyrgyz and Russian banks will remain, the press service of the Kyrgyz NATIONAL BANK clarified to TASS .

Mir cards have been operating in Kyrgyzstan since 2019 as part of the integration of two payment systems - the Russian Mir and the Kyrgyz Elcard. 21 banks participate in Elkart. However, the first problems with the operation of Mir cards in Kyrgyzstan began in the fall of 2022, after the US Treasury threatened to punish foreign financial organizations for cooperation with NSPK. For example, as of October 2022, support for Mir cards was suspended by ten out of 23 credit institutions.

US sanctions against the NSPK were introduced in February 2024 . At the time of the introduction of restrictions, Mir cards were also supported by some banks in Kazakhstan, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Cuba, but you can’t pay with them everywhere. After the introduction of sanctions, for example, the Kazakh Bereke Bank, a former subsidiary of Sberbank, announced the cessation of work with Mir cards. Since February, the largest bank in Kazakhstan, Halyk Bank, has stopped working with Russian cards.

In March, the payment system of Armenia (Armenian Card, ArCa), which includes most banks, also stopped working with Mir cards. The exception was VTB Armenia, a subsidiary of the Russian VTB.

NSPK was created in RUSSIA in 2014 after the imposition of sanctions due to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in the event of the disconnection of international payment system cards in the country. 100% of the company belongs to the Bank of Russia. NSPK processes transactions on cards of any payment systems issued by Russian banks, and is also the operator of the Mir system. The first World cards were released in 2015. After the international payment systems Visa and Mastercard left Russia in March 2022, and their cards stopped working abroad, Mir became an alternative for non-cash payments abroad.