Russia looks to China for microchips for domestic bank cards

Western sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine have removed Moscow from the global financial system, freezing nearly half of its $640 billion in foreign exchange and gold reserves.

Oleg Tishakov, board member of the Russian National Card Payment System (NSPK), said that they are facing a shortage of microchips (microchips) as Asian companies suspend production because of the pandemic and European suppliers stopped cooperating with Moscow after the sanctions.

“We are looking for new IC suppliers and have found some in China. The formalities are ongoing”Tishakov said at a meeting on April 5.

Some of Russia’s largest banks no longer have access to the SWIFT global banking information system. Visa and MasterCard international payment card services have stopped serving Russian accounts abroad. Mir’s (Russian payment system) connection to Apple Pay was removed last month.

NSPK issued more than 2 million Mir tokens between the end of 2021 and March, according to Reuters. The total number of cards in circulation is 116 million.

All major Russian banks report increased demand for domestic cards. Some banks are now issuing cards co-branded with China’s UnionPay – an alternative payment system to Visa and MasterCard for Russians to make purchases abroad.

Mir card is also accepted by some banks in Turkey, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus…