Here's a follow up to a  previously post by the PIN Payments News Blog, "Russia to Create Alternative to Visa/MasterCard"



The Moscow News is reporting that the Russian Finance Ministry is drafting a proposal to create an electronic payment system designed to compete with Visa and MasterCard.  Europe has already announced plans to do the same with a system called "Monnet."  The Russian system will be based on Sberbank's card, which last year became the United Russia Payment System. (URPS).



MasterCard and Visa control 85% of the Russian market, including 90% of the 35 million cards given out this year before September by state lender Sberbank, while only 3.5 million of these had the URPS logo on them.





According to the report, MasterCard wants to work with the Russian Finance Ministry:

"MasterCard has already stated its desire to get involved in the creation of the system but first has to legally register in Russia to be eligible. "We are ready to register in Russia and to create a financial settlements centre here," the head of MasterCard Europe in Russia, Ilya Ryaby, told Kommersant last week.