Iran-Russia Bank Card Integration in November

The much-anticipated plan to integrate the payment systems of Iran and Russia is now in sight, with top officials from Iran and Russia agreeing in Moscow to implement it as early as November.

The delegations agreed that the integration of the two countries' bank card systems, which will allow their citizens to use their cards in each other's countries, will be pushed back from August to November, IRIB News reported.

Gholamali Kamyab, the vice governor of Central Bank of Iran, headed the Iranian delegation and met with the Russian delegation led by Dmitry Skobelkin, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, also known as Bank of Russia.

CBI had announced in mid-May that Iran and Russia have agreed to integrate their bank card systems, and "Iranian citizens who have a Shetab [Iran's national payment system] card and those who have Russian [Mir] cards will be able to use ATMs in both countries by the end of the [fifth Iranian month of] Mordad [August 22]".

As part of the next phase, it added, they will also be able to jointly use their countries' correspondent payment gateways.

However, the plan will now reportedly be implemented in November, but the Russians have said they will do what they can to make it go into effect sooner, if possible.

In the meeting held as part of the fifth joint conference of Iran-Russia banking task groups, a memorandum of understanding for development of mutual banking ties was signed between the two countries.

In addition to bilateral talks between Kamyab and Skobelkin, representatives of Bank Refah, Bank Sina, Bank Hekmat Iranian and the Export Development Bank of Iran held negotiations with their Russian counterparts with the aim of developing collaborations.

The previous conference of the banking task groups of the two countries was held almost a year ago in Tehran.

In March, President Hassan Rouhani met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Iranian banking officials, including CBI Governor Valiollah Seif, accompanied him and held talks with senior Russian banking officials.