TASHKENT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd September, 2022) The Uzbek national banking service Uzcard is suspending the processing of the Russian payment system Mir's cards starting Friday, citing technical issues, after the United States threatened secondary sanctions.
On September 15, the US Treasury said that sanctions would be applied against financial institutions supporting the Mir payment network outside Russia.
"The Common Republican Processing Center notifies that due to the necessary technical procedures on the participant's side of the Uzcard payment system, from 9 a.m. (04:00 GMT) on September 23, it suspends the service of Mir cards in the infrastructure of the Uzcard payment system and the operation of Uzcard co-branded Mir cards abroad," the center said in a statement.
At the same time, co-branded Mir cards continue to operate in standard mode on the territory of Uzbekistan, the center specified.
At the beginning of March, Uzcard announced the suspension of Mir cards acceptance, except for co-branded, due to maintenance. However, the center resumed the acceptance of Mir cards not long after.
Banks in Uzbekistan started accepting Mir cards in 2020, following the agreement between Mir and Uzcard payment systems in March 2019. In June 2020, Mir launched cross-border transfers to any banks participating in the Uzcard payment systems.
