CBI Talking to Int’l Payments Technology Companies

The Central Bank of Iran is negotiating with international credit card issuers and preparing the infrastructure for the official reentry of the payments technology companies, says the bank governor.

“The CBI is in the process of building the necessary infrastructure [for the reentry of international credit cards],” Valiollah Seif said in reference to recent efforts regarding the use of Master Card and Visa to Iran, reports IBENA.

“Negotiations have taken place with companies that issue the cards and some related matters are being finalized.”   

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi said  in August that the Post Company and another local firm had reached an agreement to offer MasterCard in Iran. Vaezi said that Iran Post Company is prepared to expand cooperation with firms authorized by the CBI to offer international prepaid cards.

According to Farshid Ya’soubi, an official with the National Informatics Corporation affiliated to the CBI, to reload the balance of cards, a request has to be made at Post Bank of Iran’s offices and the rest of the process will be taken care by the bank. He said the cards are issued outside the country and delivered to domestic users.

 Seif noted that some companies that provide credit card services are American and therefore Iran cannot work with them due to the US sanctions. “However we will work with their branches in other parts of the world.”

An expert CBI team bank will follow up the matter depending on the speed with which the infrastructure plans progress, he said.

In late October, Informatics Services Corporation – a leading developer of banking and payment solutions in Iran – launched a formal bid to seek partnership with top payment solution suppliers to develop a national platform for management of international card payments.

According to a report on its website, the company has been given an official mandate to start the “International Card Payment Total Solution” project, with the aim of connecting “Iran’s payment ecosystem to the international card schemes (ICS) including Japan’s JCB and China’s UnionPay in the short term and eventually link it to Visa and MasterCard.”

ISC says the mandate has been defined to help create the facility of accepting foreign visitors’ international payment cards in Iran’s payment network and issuing international payment cards for Iranians traveling abroad.

The central bank governor says if problems arise “we will prevent them” but there is nothing hindering the process of the cards’ reentry to Iran.

“It is possible that in the short term and until we come to a final solution, there can be other ways to solve the [payment] problems,” Seif said without elaboration.