Qiwi: in 2022, more than a quarter of Internet payments in Russia were made with the Mir card

The share of Mir cards by November 2022 in the volume of Internet payments increased to 26.2%. In November 2021, it was 17.4%. This is evidenced by the data of the joint research financial services provider Qiwi and payment aggregator IntellectMoney.

According to the study, the peak of Internet payments with Mir cards occurred in June, when their share increased to 38%. A noticeable increase was observed in April (+4.5% per month): then the share of Internet payments using the Russian payment system was 26.3%, follows from the analytics data.

Among the categories in which a significant increase in the use of Mir cards is noticeable are loan repayments (from 20.3% in November 2021 to 44.1% in November 2022), payment for purchases in online stores (from 18.6% to 39.3%) and utility bills (from 24.1% to 36.9%), according to a Qiwi press release.

At the same time, the study records a decrease in the number of online payments with Visa and Mastercard cards. By November, the share of Visa cards was 36.6% (43.6% in November 2021), Mastercard – 37.1% (38.4%). Other payment systems, including China’s UnionPay, accounted for 0.3% of total internet payments in October 2022, according to the study.

The analysis took into account payments for all Qiwi partners that accept payment through payment service acquiring from November 2021 to November 2022.

Visa and Mastercard suspended work in Russia in the spring amid the imposition of sanctions. Cards of international payment systems issued by banks of the Russian Federation are not accepted abroad, and cards of foreign banks of these systems are not accepted in Russia. The Russian payment system “Mir” has become an alternative to cards that have left the market. According to Bloomberg, in six of the nine countries in which the Mir system operated, banks refused from its support against the backdrop of the threat of US sanctions. Analysts of the agency consider the current situation a “collapse” and a failure of Russia’s attempt to create its own alternative to Visa and Mastercard in conditions of financial isolation.

Erdni Kagaltynov