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over U.S. warnings of sanctions, Bloomberg reported on September 28, citing an unnamed senior Turkish official. On Wednesday, Turkish broadcaster NTV reported there were no banks left in Turkey that accept Mir, which translates as "World" from Russian. Turkiye Halk Bankası, TC Ziraat Bankası and Turkiye Vakıflar Bankasi, Bloomberg reports, plan to stop processing payments using Mir.
The US Treasury imposed blocking sanctions against the head of the Russian National Payment Card System (NPCS or NSPK), Vladimir Komlev, on September 15. NSPC is the operator of the Russian Mir payment system, and while the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) stopped short of explicitly sanctioning Mir, it officially warned third country financial organisations against supporting the Russian payment system. “Those non-US financial institutions that enter into new or expanded agreements with NSPK risk supporting Russia’s efforts to evade US sanctions through the expanded use of the MIR National Payment System outside the territory of the Russian Federation,” the OFAC said on September 15. This is a warning sign that the US is watching Russia’s efforts to build an international payment infrastructure instead of the sanctioned one. The domestic Mir card and NSPK national payment systems were created by the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) in 2015 to cut the reliance on Western payment systems with the country under pressure from sanctions for the annexation of Crimea.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) has proposed that foreign banks from “friendly” countries may open branches in Russia, Vedomosti daily reported citing a presentation prepared by the CBR and the Ministry of Finance for the notorious strategic economic meeting of August 30. As followed closely by bne IntelliNews, Russia needs to rebuild a network of correspondent accounts and payment systems as an alternative to SWIFT in order to boost cross-border payments in rubles and “friendly” unsanctioned currencies.
Interros of sanctioned Russianbnaire Vladimir Potanin is granting up to 50% of Rosbank's shares to the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation, RBC business portal reported, citing the company's Telegram channel. In addition, Interros is directing up to 10% of Rosbank's shares to a motivational programme for the bank's employees. As followed by bne IntelliNews, Potanin remained free of Western sanctions for four months following Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. He was quick to use the cash available to buy cheap discounted assets at home, and to rebuild his banking business empire. Potanin acquired Russia’s eleventh-largest bank Rosbank, fully owned by French Societe Generale.
109 RUSSIA Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com