Troyan “Mir” – Newspaper Kommersant No. 185 (7386) dated 10/06/2022

According to Turkish media reports, on October 5 Kazan hosted a meeting of representatives of the central banks of Russia and Turkey, where possible alternatives to Mir cards for Russian tourists were discussed. One of the options is the issuance to Russians of cards of the Turkish payment system TROY.

According to the Turkish newspaper Aydinlik, if the regulators of the two countries reach an agreement, then Russian banks that are not under US sanctions will be able to open an account with Turkish banks that are members of the Turkish payment system, whose subsidiaries are now operating in Russia. Russian credit organizations will then be able to issue the corresponding card. Members of the TROY payment system are 29 Turkish banks and financial institutions, among which there are banks (DenizBank, Ziraat Bankasi and Is Bankasi) that have subsidiary credit organizations in Russia.

Experts suggest that Russian banks, including the subsidiaries of Turkish credit institutions, will not be able to open TROY cards themselves, but act as distributors of cards issued by Turkish banks. In this case, the issuer will be able to accurately guarantee that the cards will not be issued to citizens of the Russian Federation who are under sanctions, and they will not be in circulation on the territory of Russia, therefore, they will not be serviced by the National Payment Card System (NPCS), from cooperation with which Turkish banks warned the United States and what caused the search for an alternative to the World map.

Another option was previously proposed by Turkish tourism organizations. According to the Sabah publication, it is planned that Russian tourists, along with the tour, will buy a prepaid card, the costs of which will be deducted from the account of the Turkish tour operator. “This card can be used in restaurants, retail and entertainment establishments like a normal card,” says Sabah. Another option for resolving the issue, experts call permission to open branches of foreign banks from friendly countries in Russia. And those, in turn, will be able to issue Russians cards of international payment systems that can be used to pay around the world.

All these schemes have one significant drawback for the Russian financial market: they assume that the settlements of Russian citizens will bypass not only domestic banks, but the entire payment infrastructure of the country. It turns out that by allowing any of these schemes, the Bank of Russia launches a Trojan horse into the country, which will not be controlled or regulated by it in any way, and will also be able to curtail its activities overnight without any consultations with the Central Bank. That is, it is proposed to allow exactly what the NSPK and the Mir payment system were created to combat.