India, Russia explore possibility of accepting RuPay, Mir cards

For hassle-free payments amid sanctions imposed by the West on Moscow, India and Russia will explore the possibility of accepting RuPay and Mir cards in each other's country.

Both the countries discussed and agreed to explore the opportunity of allowing acceptance of these cards during the high level Internal Governmental Commission meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).

With the mutual acceptance of RuPay (India) and Mir cards (Russia), Indian and Russian citizens will be able to make hassle-free payments in Indian rupees and Russian ruble in their respective countries.

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The meetings was co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Russia Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. They agreed to explore the possibility of interaction of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of National Payment Corporation of India and the Faster Payments System (FPS) of the Bank of Russia.

Also, both agreed to look at adopting the Russian financial messaging system, Services Bureau of Financial Messaging System of the Bank of Russia, for cross border payments.

As per details, overseas payments from India and vice versa are through the SWIFT network. Though, with sanctions imposed not would not be feasible for India to opt for other than SWIFT network.

It is to be known that recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong launched the cross-border connectivity between UPI and PayNow.

India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore's PayNow now allows people in the two countries to undertake faster and cost-efficient digital transfers.

With agency inputs.