In March 2014, Visa and MasterCard stopped servicing the cards of several Russian banks without warning. People could not pay in the store.
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On May 5, 2014, Vladimir Putin signed the law establishing the national payment card system. At the end of 2015, the first Mir cards were issued, and in 2019, the rapid payments system was launched, which enables the transfer of funds by phone number.
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When Visa and MasterCard left Russia in 2022, the cards within the country continued to work. Today, 88.4% of retail purchases in Russia are paid without cash. Transferring money to a relative, splitting a bill at a coffee shop, paying for a purchase using a QR code - all this has become commonplace.
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There are still few places where Mir is accepted abroad, but in our country the payments no longer depend on the decisions of foreign companies.