India is exploring the possibility of servicing Mir cards – Kommersant

India is discussing with Russia the possibility of using Russian Mir cards on its territory, and the Russian Federation, in turn, may allow paying with cards of the Indian payment system RuPay, reports The Economic Times with reference to sources.

According to the interlocutors of the publication, India and Russia agreed to study the possibility of accepting each other’s payment systems cards following a meeting of a high-level internal government commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation. The event was attended by Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar and Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Denis Manturov, reports The Economic Times.

According to the publication, the parties also decided to explore the possibility of interaction between the Russian Fast Payment System and the Indian Unified Payment Service. In addition, the meeting decided to consider the issue of switching to the Russian financial messaging system for cross-border payments between India and Russia, reports The Economic Times.

The fact that India and Russia can recognize each other’s payment systems, in August 2022, citing sources wrote Deccan Herald edition. At the end of March last year, The Economic Times informedthat Russia and India have created an analogue of SWIFT for settlements between countries.

Russian exports to India almost quadrupled from April 2022 to January 2023, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade. Such rapid growth was primarily provided by the supply of oil, coal and fertilizers. Imports from India, on the contrary, decreased, in particular, due to a decrease in supplies of machinery and equipment to the Russian Federation. Trade between countries is accompanied by difficulties with settlements: foreign banks often block payments, and the transition to rupees and rubles is limited due to the peculiarities of currency regulation and a strong imbalance in mutual supplies.

More details – in the material “The ruble and the rupee lack reciprocity”.

Erdni Kagaltynov