National Payment System Department

The National Payment System of the Russian Federation is a fast-developing system with a continually expanding list of available services, the appearance of new market players, and new services and technologies being offered. In this context, the stability and development of the National Payment System (NPS) is a priority goal of the Bank of Russia, and its achievement is a key task to be tackled by the National Payment System Department.

To this end, the Department takes efforts in multiple areas, establishing rules for the operation in the Russian payment market, carrying out proactive supervision and monitoring of NPS entities, continuously enhancing the Bank of Russia’s own payment system by developing traditional services (standard and express money transfers) and implementing innovations such as the Faster Payments System and the Financial Messaging System.

Creating conditions for the development and deployment of new payment technologies and services is another important priority in the Department’s work. The Department is responsible for the creation of nation-wide infrastructure solutions ensuring equal access for all participants, thereby promoting competition and enhancing financial inclusion. This requires continuous communication with the market community, sharing a common information environment with counterparts from foreign central banks, and a fast and efficient response to the new needs of market participants. In this regard, a particular focus is put on the evolution of Mir cards, the national payment instrument.

The payment market develops not only by way of regulation, supervision and monitoring, but also by offering high-quality payment services in the Bank of Russia payment system, which is the main channel for settlements in rubles between Russian banks. The launch of the Faster Payments System, a new service of the Bank of Russia payment system, is also aimed at ensuring equal conditions for participants and enhancing financial inclusion. This service enables round-the-clock online money transfers on the basis of simplified identifiers.

The processing of non-standard requests helps improve the quality of payment services in terms of their accessibility to consumers. The Department identifies areas for further development in the process of rendering payment services by market participants, and raises citizens’ financial literacy. Moreover, the Department collects, analyses and publishes the statistics of Russia’s National Payment System.

Another area of the Department’s work is the management of budget accounts held with both the Bank of Russia and commercial banks, as well as the administration of budget receipts in the form of fees and penalties as part of the functions of the Bank of Russia as the mega-regulator.