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Major Tajik bank halts use of Russia's Mir cards

26 September 2022 16:09 (UTC +04:00)

Tajikistan's Dushanbe City Bank, a major issuer of bank cards in the Central Asian nation, will no longer support the use of Mir cards issued by Bank of Russia's National Card Payment System (NSPK), it said on Monday, citing technical issues. The bank said it had experienced issues with Mir cards since Sept. 23, and customers would no longer be able to use them to withdraw money or for transactions, APA reports citing Devdiscourse.

The announcement follows a similar move by Uzbekistan's UZCARD processing centre system, which halted work with Mir last week and also cited technical reasons. NSPK could not immediately be reached for comment.

NSPK chief executive Vladimir Komlev has been targeted by U.S. sanctions this month, although the entity itself has not been put on the black list. Russia has promoted Mir as an alternative to Visa and MasterCard, which shut off their Russian networks after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in February.