Russian Mir payment system announced the completion of development of MirPay mobile app (analogues: Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay) for contactless payments via smartphones, RBC.ru reports.

According to Vladimir Komlev, Chief Executive Officer at National Payment Card System (Mir Payment System operator), first 4 banks of Russia will be able to introduce the service to clients at the beginning of 2019, another 3 banks will join them during the second stage, and then other banks will follow.  

The spread of contactless payments via Pay services (mainly for Mastercard and Visa) in Russia started more than 2 years ago. Russians are now among the leaders in the world by the number of similar payments.

However, Mir cards still don’t have access to Google Pay or Google Pay. National Payment Card System conducted negotiations on joining foreign servers, but it was able to come to agreement with Samsung Pay only (now available for Mir cardholders of 9 banks). In April of 2018 the company decided to create its own mobile app for contactless payments.

MirPay will be available for Mir cardholders, who use contactless technologies compliant smartphones, based on Android.

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