Taghribnews (TNA) - BRICS Members in Talks on Iran’s Idea of Integrating Payment Systems: Diplomat

BRICS Members in Talks on Iran’s Idea of Integrating Payment Systems: Diplomat

Member states of the BRICS are discussing Iran’s initiative to integrate their national payment systems within the group’s framework, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has told TASS in an interview.

Rudenko underscored that "creating clearance and payment infrastructure that would be independent and resilient to the pressure of sanctions" would be an important step in strengthening the financial sovereignty of BRICS.

However, Iran’s initiative is still being discussed, and "it is yet too early to speak of any final parameters," the high-ranking Russian diplomat added.
On July 4, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Mohammadreza Farzin held negotiations with Governor of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina in St. Petersburg. On July 6, he said that at the meeting the parties noted the completion of work on integrating the Russian payment system Mir and the Iranian payment system Shetab and also signed an agreement on providing liquidity to national currencies for commercial transactions.
According to the head of CBI, from August 22, Iranians will be able to withdraw rubles from Shetab smart cards at all Russian ATMs. It is planned that in the next stages of the project Russians will be able to use Mir cards in Iran and Shetab owners will be able to pay for purchases in Russian stores with Iranian bank cards.