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The Central Bank of the Russian Federation announced on Sunday that several banks will switch to the Chinese card system following the suspension of Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal in Russia.

...Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal announced on Saturday they will suspend all operations in Russia.

On Sunday, several banks in Russia will start to issue new cards with the new Russian payments system “Mir” ['World'] and China’s UnionPay.

Sberbank PJSC said it’s looking at the possibility of issuing cards using Russian payments system Mir and China’s UnionPay after Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. suspended operations following the invasion of Ukraine.

The move could allow Russians to make some payments overseas, with UnionPay operating in 180 countries and regions. Visa and Mastercard said that any transactions initiated with their cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside the country from March 10.

Cards issued by domestic banks will continue to work in Russia using its payment system. Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank said it would announce timescales later.

Russia’s largest non-state lender Alfa-Bank JSC is already working on offering cards with UnionPay.

Tinkoff Bank said it currently isn’t issuing such cards, but will start to do so as it’s soon as possible. Raiffeisen Bank International AG’s Russian business said on its website that it was considering the problem.

The Bank of Russia is also temporarily reducing the amount of information commercial banks are required to publish in an effort to limit the risks from international sanctions. Starting with statements for February, banks will no longer have to release accounts prepared to national standards or make any additional disclosures on their websites, the central bank said in a statement.

The central bank of Russia advised its citizens to use cash abroad. It said Mir cards could also be used in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

MOSCOW, July 20 2021 (Reuters) - Russia's card payment system Mir, which was set up in 2015 after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow, is now connected to Apple Pay, the card issuer said on Tuesday.

More than 95 million Mir cards have been issued by Russia's National Card Payment System (NSPK), accounting for about a third of Russia's card market which was previously dominated by international payment systems Visa (V.N) and Mastercard (MA.N).

Mir has been part of Moscow's efforts to develop homegrown financial tools to mirror Western ones, which still operate in Russia, to protect the country in case sanctions are broadened.

Apple Pay began operating in Russia in 2016 and now has more than 20 million users. The service is available to customers at eight banks, including major Russian lenders such as Sberbank (SBER.MM), VTB (VTBR.MM) and Tinkoff (TCSq.L).

"A number of other banks are preparing to connect," NSPK said in a statement to Reuters.

Apple did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.