The Russian Government has submitted to the State Duma a draft law that gives the Central Bank’s board of directors the authority to determine the functions of the National Payment Card System (NPCS) to work with international payment cards issued by operators excluded by the regulator from the register, as well as to determine the terms of termination of the behavior of banks of such operations on the territory of the Russian Federation.

“The decision of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank may determine the functions performed by the joint-stock company “National System of Payment Cards” in order to ensure the implementation of operations on the territory of the Russian Federation with the use of international payment cards, including those issued within the framework of payment systems, the operators of which are excluded by the Bank of Russia from the register of operators of payment systems, as well as the terms of termination of the conduct of such operations by credit organizations”, – stated in the introduced bill.

The NSPC provides processing of transactions on “Mir” cards and cards of international payment systems. Now domestic transactions on payment cards Visa (NYSE:V) and MasterCard pass through processing NSPK, while the operator of the payment system Visa (LLC “Payment System Visa”) and MasterCard (LLC “MasterCard”) were excluded from the register on March 18.

Payment system “American Express” was excluded from the register of payment system operators on March 29; payment system JCB – on April 1. According to the data as of June 3, there are 21 operators in the register, including Chinese UnionPay (UnionPay LLC) and Bank of China payment system.

In addition, according to the bill, the subjects of the national payment system, according to the decision of the Central Bank, will be able in 2022 to disclose financial information without observing the terms established in the law. Now this right can be used only by credit and non-credit financial organizations. In addition, in 2022, the Central Bank will be able to establish standards of financial indicators for subjects of the national payment system that differ from those established in federal laws.