İş Bankası suspends use of Mir cards
ISTANBUL
İş Bankası, Türkiye’s largest private lender by asset, has announced that it has suspended transactions through the Russian payment system Mir.
İş Bankası assessed the statement by the U.S. Treasury Department and that it has suspended the transactions through Mir, the bank told news service Bloomberg.
Last week, the Office of Foreign Assets Control said NSPK and the Mir National Payment System process transactions for designated Russian banks and may be used to process transactions involving other sanctioned persons or activity.
“Accordingly, those non-U.S. financial institutions that enter into new or expanded agreements with NSPK risk supporting Russia’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions through the expanded use of the MIR National Payment System outside the territory of the Russian Federation,” it said.
NSPK is the operator of Russia’s Mir National Payment System, which clears and settles payments between consumers, merchants, and banks for debit and credit card payments, primarily in the Russian Federation.
Banking shares traded on Borsa Istanbul plunged on Sept. 19 after İs Bankası’s announcement.
Türkiye is not implementing the sanctions Western nations imposed on Russia amid the invasion of Ukraine.
The Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) on Aug. 23 confirmed that it received a letter from U.S. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo cautioning that Turkish companies risked consequences if they did business with Russians or Russian institutions that were under U.S. sanctions.
But Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said at that time that concerns over the letter were meaningless and that Turkish businesses should not be worried about the threat of U.S. sanctions.
