Russia’s NSPK plans to phase out Visa and Mastercard cards in circulation by cutting interchange to 1% in 2027 and 0% in 2028

Russia’s National Payment Card System (NSPK), the operator of the Mir payment system, is preparing a gradual exit path for Visa and Mastercard cards still used domestically. For PSPs and acquirers, the useful detail is not the headline politics; it is the mechanism: lower interchange on those cards, less economic reason to keep them alive, and a staged migration timeline instead of a hard cutoff.

1. The NSPK council of market participants and users decided not to set a deadline for ending circulation of Visa and Mastercard cards in Russia, even though those networks stopped working with Russia in March 2022. Instead, the council was told to consider reducing interchange on those cards to 1% from the start of 2027 and to 0% from the start of 2028.
2. The stated reason is straightforward: a gradual withdrawal of such cards from circulation and lower NSPK maintenance costs. Dmitry Dubynin, the company’s CEO, said the proposal has been presented to market participants and that they have one month to submit their comments. He also said the measure should let banks remove the cards from circulation without pain.
3. Visa and Mastercard cards issued by Russian banks no longer work abroad, but they still function inside Russia. That creates the usual messy transition state: the network is gone externally, but the installed base remains domestically until the economics change enough to push it out.
4. NSPK is also planning a separate interchange cut inside Mir: the rate for household services and notary services is set to fall to 1%. Dubynin framed that move as a way to expand cashless payments and reduce pressure on small businesses. The program is scheduled to start in July 2026 and run for three years.
5. The scale of the shift is already visible in the numbers NSPK cited: the market share of Mir cards rose from 25.7% in 2021 to 75% in 2022. For anyone watching payment stack risk in Russia, that is the backdrop for why a slow phase-out of Visa and Mastercard can be discussed at all.