National Payment System
The national payment system provides cashless settlements and payments to individuals and legal entities.
The national payment system comprises 31 payment systems, 486 funds transfer operators, and over 500 payment agents and bank payment agents.
The Bank of Russia ensures the stability and smooth functioning of the national payment system and the necessary infrastructure for cashless settlements in the Russian Federation.
In 2014, the Bank of Russia established the National Payment Cards System (NPCS), based on which the Mir cards and the Faster Payments System (FPS) were created. Additionally, all domestic Russian payments using the cards of international payment systems are processed through the NPCS.
The Mir card is accepted throughout the Russian Federation and in a number of CIS and non-CIS countries. The Mir card accounts for more than 18.7% of all card transactions in Russia and 22.4% of new card issuance.
Any citizen of Russia can apply for a Mir card. It is mandatorily provided to pensioners, civil servants, public sector employees, and people receiving budget payments (such as public welfare recipients or students).
The Bank of Russia pays a special attention to the development of payment technologies and services. In particular, in 2019, the Faster Payments System (FPS) was launched, which allows individuals to instantly transfer funds to each other using mobile phone numbers, pay for purchases, pay utility bills and make a variety of other transfers.