Russia delays deadline for Visa, MasterCard security deposits

Russia’s upper house of parliament approved a law on Wednesday, extending the deadline for security deposit payments by Visa, MasterCard and other international card systems to the second quarter of 2015.
The bill was approved on Tuesday by the State Duma (the lower house of Russia’s parliament).
Visa and MasterCard earlier stopped servicing cards of some Russian banks hit by US sanctions, after which the State Duma passed a law on establishing a national payment card system, obliging international payment operators to pay security deposits totaling their two-day turnover.
Russian Central Bank Deputy Chairwoman Tatiana Chugunova earlier said the international payment operators’ security deposits amounted to $200-300 million per quarter.
The delay in security deposit payments is needed for a transitional period to transfer international payment card processing to the operational center and the payment clearing center based on Russia’s national payment card system.
The international payment systems Amex, JCB, MasterCard and Visa have announced they are ready to operate in Russia through the national payment card processing center.