MIR CARDS WILL BE LINKED TO APPLE PAY

The national payment system (NPS) Mir has finally come to its senses and announced the opportunity for Russians to link (or, in the official language, tokenize) bank cards to the Apple Pay payment system. Experts call this step forced, given the data of the analytical departments over the past few years.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) consultants reported on the eve of 2020 that the country took the leading place in the number of secure transactions through the tokenization system (as a way to ensure the security of transmitted banking data).

The past 2020, which developed against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, brought Russia and its inhabitants to second place among all users of the Apple Pay payment system after the United States.

Now Russian state employees, who use IPhones and are forced to receive wages on Mir payment cards, will be able to breathe a sigh of relief. From April 27, Russian banks will be able to provide them with the opportunity to pay through the non-cash payment system without the need to get other cards of the Visa or MasterCard systems and transfer funds to them in advance.

We should recall that the possibility of tokenizing Mir cards for the Samsung Pay virtual wallet has already been implemented and is available to Russians. Some citizens even managed to use Mir Pay digital wallets. They became available on devices with the Android operating system, produced specifically for the Russian Federation. However, their number turned out to be disproportionate to the number of users who purchased the products of the Apple company.

Considering that five years have passed since the start of Apple Pay payment systems in Russia in 2016, the implementation of such an opportunity for NPS Mir looks belated. According to Alma Obaeva, the head of the National Payment Council, refusing to support Apple Pay for Mir cardholders would further mean that Mir NPS would remain uncompetitive.

At the same time, the developers of the national payment system do not expect a miracle and do not hope that the announced opportunity will immediately lead to an explosive growth in the number of those who hold Mir plastic cards. First of all, it is unlikely that all commercial banks will be able to open new opportunities for their clients at one moment. Each credit institution will be free to set the term for such a "link"

Secondly, Mir cards are still not accepted in the majority of countries in the world, with the exception of Turkey, Vietnam and some CIS countries. At the same time, almost every third Russian has a Mir card, and by the number of transactions over the past year, Mir NPS gained 24% of the total volume of such banking operations.