Russia and Iran to integrate payment systems – Lavrov

Russia’s domestic credit and debit payment system Mir will soon be integrated with its Iranian analogue Shetab in order to facilitate mutual transactions, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

“On the integration and mutual use of the Russian Mir and Iranian Shetab systems, substantive talks are being held at the level of central banks. They communicated in July and agreed on a kind of a road map that will lead us to this result. I am sure that this will take place relatively soon,” Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

Amir-Abdollahian also expressed hope that the last technical problems for the integration would be resolved in the nearest future. 

Earlier, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said that the availability of the necessary technical infrastructure allows Iran to connect to the Mir system within a few months. Meanwhile, Korban Eskandari, the general director of the Iranian Economy Ministry’s Department of Banking and Insurance Affairs noted that Iran could use Mir for financial transactions with Russia at the early stages of cooperation, and then expand its use to settlements with other international partners.

Earlier this month, reports emerged that India also plans to start accepting Russian Mir cards, while, in return, Russia is likely to “clear the way” for Indian RuPay cards to be accepted in the country.

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