TRANSNISTRIAN PAYMENT SYSTEM TO BE INTEGRATED IN THE RUSSIAN “PRO100”

Starting from July 1, a payment system, integrated in the Russian PRO100 system, will be launched in Transnistria, said Head of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan republic (PMR) central bank department for national payment system Alexei Kochetov on the region’s radio.

He said that the national payment system is a complex of software and hardware, which includes the Transnistrian central bank, the empowered banks of PMR and trade organizations, aimed at providing to bank cards owners the opportunity of cashless payments.

“The Transnistrian payment system is based on the international EMV standard (Europay+MasterCard+VISA) for smart payment cards and the payment application “PRO100”. The latter belongs to the Universal Electronic Card (UEC) payment system, to which the PMR central bank acceded as the operator and owner of the Transnistrian payment system. Consequently, the bank has the right to connect indirect participants (banks – users of the national payment system) to the Russian system through its processing”, the banker said.

According to him, the partnership with the UEC will allow owners of Transnistrian bank cards to use these in the territory of Russia also.

Kochetov said that the introduction of a national system is profitable for the state as well, because the payment turnover shifts to the cashless form that is the shadow segment is excluded, the tax base grows, cash money production costs fall.

According to the Transnistrian bank forecasts, around 300 thousand bank cards may be issued within the new system by the end of 2023.

Specialists say that the national payment system will further depend on extending of the trade acquiring network – raising the number of trade points, which accept payment cards. The mains focus is put on the network of POS-terminals, installed in trade outlets.