Russia to roll out own banking payment card in December
The launch of Russia’s first national banking payment card is slated for this coming December, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science announced
Oct 18, 2015
The card, to be called "Mir" (stands for both "world" and "peace" in Russian), will have a Russian chip fully developed in Zelenograd just outside Moscow by NIIME & Mikron, the largest microelectronics maker and exporter in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
The chip is said to be built entirely on domestic technologies as an alternative to chips currently manufactured by the U.S.’ Atmel, Western Europe’s STMicroelectronics, NXP and Infineon, and Asia’s Samsung and Renesas. As of today, Russian banks use the chips of these international companies to issue cards.
The price of the new Mikron chip will be "quite competitive" compared to foreign analogs, the Ministry said imprecisely. Mikron is reported to have the capacity to produce up to 10 million banking chips a month.
Mikron spent its own money to develop the new national chip and has opted not to disclose any investment amount thus far, the source said.
Russian banks will also be able to use the Russian chips to issue their MasterCard cards, as the chip has reportedly been certified internationally and can be used in global payment systems.
The chip is said to be built entirely on domestic technologies as an alternative to chips currently manufactured by the U.S.’ Atmel, Western Europe’s STMicroelectronics, NXP and Infineon, and Asia’s Samsung and Renesas. As of today, Russian banks use the chips of these international companies to issue cards.
The price of the new Mikron chip will be "quite competitive" compared to foreign analogs, the Ministry said imprecisely. Mikron is reported to have the capacity to produce up to 10 million banking chips a month.
Mikron spent its own money to develop the new national chip and has opted not to disclose any investment amount thus far, the source said.
Russian banks will also be able to use the Russian chips to issue their MasterCard cards, as the chip has reportedly been certified internationally and can be used in global payment systems.