Integration of Iranian and Russian bank card networks is expected to be completed early next year, the Minister of Economy Ehsan Khandouzi said in Tehran on Monday.
“The two sides have reached agreement and the plan to connect Iran’s Shetab Network and Russia’s Mir network should be finalized within three months,” Eghtesadnews quoted him as saying.
The measure is anticipated to help ease financial transactions between businesses in the two countries, he said, “It could also be used by tourists.”
Central banks in Iran and Russia have been working on linking their domestic payment networks since 2017.
Last summer, the financial system in Iran prepared infrastructure to join the Mir system. But after sanctions were announced on Russia for invading Ukraine in February that cut off Russian bank access to SWIFT, the two sides decided to focus on creating a rival to SWIFT for cross-border payments.
The Iran Currency Exchange (ICE) listed the ruble-rial trading pair in July after a visit to Moscow by the governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Ali Salehabadi.
The arrangement means that the two countries can settle commercial payments in each other’s currencies. The first such trade was on July 19 with a 3 million rubles ($48,000) exchange the day Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Tehran for talks with the Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi.
Iranian media reported that the new system can help cut demand for dollars by $3 billion a year. Iran-Russia trade was $4 billion in 2021. But finding common cause in their approach to the West, the two countries say they are hoping to ramp up two-way trade to $8 billion.
The Russian national payment system Mir, which translates as "World" or "Peace", was created in July 2014 with the goal of reducing risk from further financial sanctions by the West and cut reliance on western systems, such as Visa and MasterCard.
Policymakers in both capitals are also considering blockchain and crypto as an alternative to two-way trade that reached $2.7 billion in H1.