Russia's National Payment Card System (NPCS) will begin producing its own cards in December 2015 and then will make them co-badged with Visa and MasterCard in 2016.

      The system will start processing some MasterCard transactions from March 31, as all banks that use MasterCard have been certified in time. Visa is expected to miss the deadline a little bit, but it is planned to certify all banks that use the Visa payment system and transfer them to the NCPS payment processing platform. About 31 banks which use the Visa payment system have been certified currently.

      The new National Payment Card System platform will allow all payment processing done by Visa and MasterCard to be done inside Russia instead of being routed through data centers in other countries. The new system will also allow Crimean residents, who are subject to sanctions, to use their bank cards for purchases on the peninsula.