Tehran and Moscow will complete the integration of the Russian Mir payment system and the Iranian Shetab within two to three months.

Franc Media writes that this was reported by Iranian Hamshahri Online news site which cited Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ehsan Khandouzi as saying.

“Good negotiations have been held between the Iranian and the Russian Central Banks, and I hope that the connection between the banking networks, as well as the connection between the networks of the (Iran's national payment system) Shetab and (the Russian) Mir bank cards will take place within the next two to three months,” Khandouzi was quoted as saying.

He noted that the connection of the banking networks of Iran and Russia will make it easier for economic operators to do business, and tourists can also use this banking network.

The information that the parties are discussing the issue of connecting Mir and Shetab payment systems became known in May this year following a meeting of the co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission of Russia and Iran.

Already in mid-August, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari said that the country has the technical ability to join the Mir payment system within a few months.

“Iran has the necessary infrastructure to connect to the Mir system. In the event of an agreement between the two parties in the negotiations, Iran can join the Mir system within a few months,” Safari had said.

A month earlier, Safari had also noted that the Iranian and Russian sides were working on a joint interbank payment system similar to SWIFT.

“Naturally, two countries that want to de-dollarize their transactions must have a special system similar to SWIFT. The Iranian and Russian sides each proposed one version of such a system. Now, we have practically reached a very good agreement, on the basis of which we could carry out currency transactions between the two countries,” Safari said.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Ali Salehabadi, following the results of meetings with representatives of the Russian authorities in Moscow on July 7-8, stated that the memorandums on interbank cooperation signed with Russia would soon be implemented in practice.

“We will implement the memorandums of intent signed during this trip in the near future. And then traders, businessmen and economists will see the results of these agreements,” the governor of the Central Bank of Iran noted then.

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