The National Bank of Kyrgyzstan has provided a statement regarding the disconnection of the inter-system integration between the national payment card systems of Kyrgyzstan, "Elkart," and Russia, "Mir."
The financial regulator emphasized that it does not interfere in the activities of banks, non-banking financial institutions, and other legal entities under its supervision, except in cases mandated by legislation. Therefore, ZAO "Interbank Processing Center," commercial banks, and payment organizations in the country autonomously decide on the connection/disconnection of "Mir" card services based on their risk assessments.
As per information from ZAO "IPC," payments within the inter-system integration between the "Mir" and "Elkart" payment systems were suspended on April 3 at 12:00. The affected services include card services in acquiring devices (cashless payments at POS terminals and cash withdrawals at ATMs), transfers from card to card, and e-commerce internet payments from cards to accounts of trade and service enterprises.
The National Bank highlighted that money transfers between Kyrgyzstan and Russia through mobile applications of commercial banks are still possible, provided there are direct contractual relationships between Kyrgyz and Russian commercial banks, as well as through money transfer systems without opening an account.
