The Russian Payment System Mir, together with PayXpert company, has launched a pilot project for accepting cards of the same name in the United Kingdom. This is stated in a press release published on the website Roscongress on November 26, before the Russian-British Business Forum which will be held in London.

“Today, Mir cards have already been accepted in eight countries, and we keep working on expansion of our cards’ acceptance network and opportunities for their holders. The launch of our joint project with PayXpert is the first and foremost step in the development of Mir acquiring in Europe, which will lay the foundation for new promising trends in the foreign expansion of Russian payment cards” Vladimir Komlev, Chief Executive Officer of the Mir Payment System, his words are quoted in a press release.

It is noted that using the Russian system, it will become easier to make payments for customers of companies that offer goods or services in Russia’s market, as a result of it their turnover will increase.

The benefit to the tourism sector is clear because more than 40 million Russians visit Europe annually, spending an average 172 pounds sterling per day.

In June, Komlev said that by the end of 2019, they would accept the Mir card in all countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan), as well as in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. According to him, it is planned by the end of 2021 to cover the states where most Russian tourists travel, and the countries where Russians live, for example Vietnam, Thailand and Bulgaria.

The national payment system Mir was created in 2014–2015 after the international systems Visa and MasterCard stopped making operations on cards issued by Russian banks that fell under US sanctions.