NSPK plans to cut Visa and Mastercard interchange fees to zero by 2028

Russia's NSPK has proposed lowering interchange fees on domestic transactions made with legacy Visa and Mastercard cards to 1% starting in 2027, and cutting them to 0% by 2028, according to a report from Russian business daily Kommersant cited by habr.

When Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Russia in 2022, local banks kept their existing cards running domestically by routing traffic through NSPK and extending their expiration dates indefinitely. However, interchange fees on those legacy cards were frozen at 2022 rates. Over the subsequent years, NSPK gradually reduced interchange fees for its domestic Mir cards, leaving issuing banks with a financial incentive to keep old Visa and Mastercard cards in customer hands.

While Mir cards accounted for more than 75% of Russian card transactions in the first quarter of the year, banks have resisted regulatory deadlines to switch off remaining international cards. NSPK head Dmitry Dubynin told market participants that maintaining processing infrastructure for unsupported foreign cards creates ongoing overhead, particularly since banks offer no new products or loyalty perks tied to them.

Instead of imposing an administrative deadline, the proposed schedule uses fee elimination to make holding the legacy cards unprofitable for issuers. Market participants have been given one month to submit feedback on the draft proposal.

Source: habr