According to media reports, as of late last week The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) said that it is “not in a position to consider favorably” to the request to operate Russia’s MIR payment system within the country’s banking system anytime in the immediate future due to the US sanctions on the payment system.
Putting an end to speculations, the Central Bank took to Twitter late Thursday evening to confirm its position in this regard.
“Due to the US sanctions on the MIR payment system, as confirmed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry - Sri Lanka, the Central Bank is not in a position to consider favourably, at the current juncture, the request to operate the MIR card scheme within the banking system,” said the financial sector regulator.
Earlier this year, Russia, which remains cut from globally popular electronic payment systems, invited Sri Lanka to recognise its MIR electronic payment system. It proposed the move as an avenue to increase tourist arrivals from the Federation to the island nation.
The Russian Embassy in Colombo said that connecting Sri Lanka to the financial remittance system of the Bank of Russia and introducing the MIR payment system to the island would allow for establishing of direct financial communication and currency exchange, cutting transactional losses and making the process of bank transfers secure and stable.
The step will have a significant positive impact on Sri Lanka’s tourism sector, the embassy said. The MIR system was founded in 2014 over fears of Western sanctions in Russian banks and businesses over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Earlier this year, as the West imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, Mastercard and Visa suspended services in Russia. American Express, PayPal, JCB, Western Union, ApplePay and GooglePay too followed suit.
Cuba, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam and a handful of former Soviet republics accept Mir, which means both “peace” and “world” in Russian, with others such as Iran intending to follow suit soon.
