Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The national system of payment cards (operator of the Mir payment system) will launch transfers from Mir cards to cards of national payment systems of Uzbekistan (Uzcard) and Kyrgyzstan (ELKART) from 29 June. The technology is another stage of the project to create a single retail payment space of the CIS countries.

The first Russian banks to provide such a service were Post Bank and Russian Standard Bank, which successfully completed all testing procedures as part of a pilot project. Transfer can be made from the Mir card to the cards of any banks participating in the ELKART and Uzcard payment systems. To do this, you will need to enter only the card number of the recipient. Indicate account details and other additional information - for example, passport number, recipient data, etc. - not required.

“Today, senders of cross-border transfers are faced with some inconvenience associated with restrictions on the currency of transfers, hidden fees in the form of a conversion rate, as well as the need to carry out transfers only from the bank’s office and fill in various details for the transaction. In addition, given the need to convert the dollar or euro into the national currency of a country, the total transfer fee, taking into account all service fees, is up to 4% for the client. We tried to take into account all these nuances and proposed a simple way to transfer from card to card on understandable conditions: the transfer is sent from Mira in rubles, and credited to the recipient's card account in Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan in national currency. The Mir payment system offered the banks the same conditions for cross-border transfers that apply today for domestic Russian card transfers using our cards, and a favorable conversion rate. This allowed banks to offer their customers lower commissions. Thus, customers will be able to save from 1% to 3% depending on the country of transfer destination,” said Vladimir Komlev, General Director of the Mir payment system.

“We are pleased to launch a joint project between the Mir payment system (NSPK JSC) and the national ELKART payment system (CJSC MPTs) to launch money transfers from Mir Russian payment cards of the Russian Federation to ELKART cards of the Kyrgyz Republic. Thanks to this service, money transfers will become more accessible, convenient and faster, because it will be possible to send and receive money without leaving your home,” said Ulan Aylchiev, Chairman of the Board of the IPC CJSC of the national payment system operator ELKART.

Through the RS express online service, the Internet Bank and the RSB Mobile application of the Russian Standard Bank, cross-border funds transfers are available from the Mir card of any bank that has opened this type of transaction for its customers. To complete the operation, you will also need to specify only the card numbers of the sender and recipient.

“Today, Russian Standard Bank has opened the possibility of cross-border transfers on the RS express universal online payment service. The service is available to any user, even if he is not a client of Russian Standard Bank. The site also does not require registration - just specify the number of the Mir card (sender) and the card number of the national payment systems of the CIS countries (recipient). Also, the service is available for customers in remote service channels: Internet and Mobile Banks,” says Alexander Samokhvalov, Chairman of the Board of the Russian Standard Bank. “Russian Standard Bank is always striving to provide customers with convenient, profitable and modern services, among the first in Russia.”

Clients of Post Bank will be able to use the transfer service from the Mir cards issued by the bank to ELKART and Uzcard cards through the usual mobile application or the Internet Bank Post Bank Online in just a few clicks. Foreign transfers will be carried out similarly to the customer-friendly card-to-card transfer service in the Russian Federation. The service is located in the “Abroad” section, in the subdirectory “From the World Map to the CIS Countries”, where you just need to choose the transfer direction.

“Money transfers to the CIS countries are a large and promising market that is growing every year. Only in Post Bank the volume of money transfers to the CIS countries in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period of the past increased by 16%. In these conditions, an innovative platform for direct cross-border transfers was simply necessary, which would bring together all participants in the process and give the consumer a convenient, profitable, reliable service. I am sure that this project will rapidly develop and change the landscape of the money transfer market from Russia to the CIS countries. Post Bank is ready to provide customers with the opportunity of convenient technological service, which, on the one hand, will attract new customers to us, and on the other hand, it will increase the volume of international transfers throughout the country,” said Dmitry Rudenko, President and Chairman of the Board of the Post Bank.