Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan rules out involvement in the termination of the Mir cards

it was not the NATIONAL BANK , but commercial banks that suspended the operation of cards of the Russian payment system “Mir” in Kyrgyzstan due to fear of sanctions. This was stated by the Prime Minister of the Republic Akylbek Japarov in an interview with the Kabar agency.

The HEAD of the Kyrgyz government emphasized that the authorities of the republic “have no fear of any sanctions.” In addition, he ruled out the existence of “objective grounds” for introducing such restrictions.

“Thirdly, it was not us who suspended the Mir card. We found out about this after the service was discontinued. Since the IPC (Interbank Processing Center) does not belong to the government, but is managed by commercial banks,” Japarov explained.

According to him, the Kyrgyz National Bank has no control over the MPC, which is more than 54% owned by commercial banks. “I assume that these commercial banks may have been afraid of possible sanctions,” the prime minister admitted.

Acceptance of Mir system cards stopped in Kyrgyzstan on April 3. Clients of this system no longer have access to non-cash payments at POS terminals and cash withdrawals from ATMs, transfers from card to card, as well as Internet payments. However, it remains possible to transfer funds between Kyrgyz and Russian banks.

The Interbank Processing Center (IPC) of Kyrgyzstan explained that the decision was made to avoid the risk of secondary US sanctions , since previously the US Department of the Treasury OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) imposed sanctions against the Mir card operator.

Prime Minister Japarov said that the MPC is serviced by a Latvian company, which also supplies software. This company warned that if Kyrgyzstan does not stop interacting with Mir, the MPC will be disconnected.