Finextra: Thirty-five Russian banks have agreed to participate in the launch of a new national payments card intended to challenge the dominance of Visa and MasterCard.
From Russia with Love? Who knows. Russia just launched its on Mir card, an alternative to VISA/MasterCard and presumably to counter the threat of sanctions that could make Russian issued VISA/MasterCard worthless when being processed outside Russia. The Mir card might even partner up with China Union Pay’s network to gain a reach out to the international market.