Russia says Visa, Mastercard should pay 'security fees' for possible disruptions

International payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard should start sharing their income with Russia to shield the country against future possible disruption, said Natalya Burykina, head of the financial markets committee of the State Duma.

The new payments need to be introduced for foreign systems that process payment data and settlements outside Russia, Burykina said.

“There’s an idea to charge these operators of payment systems with a security fee, but not very big,” the Vedomosti business daily reported Burykina as saying.

Under the plan, the new charge would be levied at 0.25 percent of one day’s profits per quarter for the payment systems.

The idea largely echoed the words of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who told Russia’s Cabinet on Tuesday that March’s disruptions by Visa and Mastercard violated existing agreements and should be punished.

“We need to make an effort… to bring the correspondent foreign partners to their senses,” Medvedev said.

He said the disruption was an additional incentive for Russia to speed up a creation of its own domestic payment system, which has been discussed for many years.

The creation of a National Payment System (NPS) for Russia is being worked out by the country’s central bank, with the government hoping to complete work on the project within the next six months.