Most Armenian banks stopped servicing Russian "Mir" cards

Armenian banks, which are members of the Armenian Card national payment system (ArCa), stopped servicing Russian Mir cards on the night of March 30.

The information about this was confirmed to the TASS correspondent in the call centre of the system, Pravda reports.

The Central Bank of Armenia has banned the service of the Mir card since March 29, fearing US sanctions, Aksakov said that the termination of operations on Mir cards would be a loss for Armenia

"As of today, banks working with our system have stopped servicing Mir cards. If necessary, you can contact specific banks that have stopped accepting your card," said the operator of the ArCa centre.

The fact that Armenian banks have stopped accepting the Mir card is confirmed by the residents of Yerevan who use it.

"After midnight, we tried to accept several payments on the Mir card, but they did not pass. Our POS terminal is serviced by Ameriabank, which has announced that it is no longer servicing Russian cards. That's probably why the payment doesn't go through," Arina, the bartender of the board game club, whose clients are mostly Russian relocators, told a TASS correspondent.

Alexey, a regular member of the club, agreed to go to the nearest ATM to try to withdraw money from his Mir card using the Inecobank terminal. It did not work out. "You will have to purchase a local card. There will be a lot of paperwork, but what to do," he said.

At various forums of compatriots and in private Telegram channels, Mir cardholders located in Armenia also reported that Russian cards had ceased to function. In particular, such banks as Evokabank, Akbabank and Conversbank were mentioned.

Only VTB Armenia

As reported two weeks ago in the press service of the National Payment Card System (NSPK), the NSPK received an official notification from the Armenian payment system that ArCa member banks will stop servicing Mir cards from March 30. At the same time, VTB Armenia Bank (the "daughter" of Russian VTB), which serves Mir cards in its infrastructure in full, will continue to work with Russian cards in the republic.

There are 53 VTB branches in Armenia, 22 of which are located in Yerevan. Customers have access to more than 190 ATMs across the country.

On February 23, 2024, the US Treasury Department added the operator of the Mir payment system, the JSC National Payment Card System, to the sanctions list. As a TASS source explained earlier, the refusal of Armenian banks to work with the Mir card is because banks serving Visa and Mastercard cards do not want to be sanctioned.

It is not only in Armenia that Mir cardholders have faced problems. Kazakhstan's Bereke Bank, formerly a subsidiary of Sberbank, and Kazakhstan's Freedom Finance Bank have already announced the termination of operations with payment system cards.