Russia presents Apple Pay replacement 

Russia’s National Payment Card System (NSPK) has developed a domestic service to replace Apple Pay and Google Pay, its general director said on Thursday.

The new solution will allow users of both Android and iOS smartphones to make contactless payments method via Bluetooth, Dmitry Dubinin told the media at the Finnopolis financial technology forum in Sochi.

About 20 Russian banks have expressed an interest in the technology, according to NSPK, the operator of the Mir payment system, the Russian equivalent of Visa and Mastercard, which also operates non-cash payments in Russia.

“Our solution is that we provide contactless payment using this technology which operates with a short range capability using a payment terminal,” Dubinin explained. “Essentially, this is a method of identifying a payment that is no longer available to us, on iPhones, for example.”

Users inside Russia were cut off from Apple Pay and Google Pay in 2022, after Western countries imposed Ukraine-related sanctions on Russian banks. Visa and MasterCard also suspended their operations in Russia, and blocked the use of Russian-issued credit or debit cards outside the country or for international online payments.

So far the Russian payment system has only presented a prototype of the service named ‘Volna’ (Wave). According to NSPK, the technology can be easily integrated into mobile banking applications and will allow users to make payments with a smartphone.

The service will work both online and offline, but will require a new type of payment terminals that support the technology, NSPK noted.

“Unlike NFC, payment using Volna can be made at a slightly longer distance from the terminal and you don’t have to worry about the position of the smartphone,” the company added.

Russia started developing its own national payment system when the US targeted the country with sanctions in 2014. Mir cards went into circulation in December 2015.