March 31 was the deadline for Visa and MasterCard to switch the processing of their operations in Russia to the new system, yet Visa failed to do so.
Switching to a National Card Payment System was done in the interests of users and is intended for implementation of the operations within the international payment systems regardless of external factors, Russia's Central Bank said in a press release Tuesday.
In May 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law legislation establishing a national system of payment cards to safeguard financial operations in the country.
In September 2014, the European Parliament urged the EU member states to consider excluding Russia from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) financial transaction system. In turn, Russia's Central Bank threatened to replace SWIFT with alternative channels of communication.
