MOSCOW, November 20 (Sputnik) – Visa CEO for Russia, the CIS and Southeastern Europe Andrew Torre has sent a letter to Russia’s Central Bank with a number of requirements that Visa would need fulfilled to continue working in Russia, Russia’s RBC news agency reports.
In a letter addressed to the deputy chairwoman of the Central Bank, Olga Skorobogatova, and the general director of the company National System of Payment Cards (NSPC) Vladimir Komlev, Andrew Torre said specifically that Visa should retain the right to set tariffs for its services.
According to the law on the national payment system, NSPC will set its own tariff policy, whereas all other payment systems will have to notify the company about changes in their tariffs 120 days in advance.
In addition, Visa appealed for the right to use its own operating and clearing center and asked that it not have to pay the security fee, if NSPC fails to ensure the system’s trouble-free and reliable operation.
Visa also announced that it does not intend to print the logos of other payment systems on its plastic cards (the practice is known as co-badging). Under the new Russian law, the cards of nationally significant payment systems should carry a graphic representation of the Russian ruble.
The Central Bank’s press service has answered the international payment system’s Russian office head, noting “that nothing prevents Visa from continuing its activity in Russia as an operator of a payment system, being simultaneously a participant of NSPC,” the agency quotes the latter as saying to Andrew Torre. They then suggested discussing any further questions via specially-created working groups.
