First SRO appears in Russian payment market

The self-regulation model, which is successful in the financial market, now applies to payment agents, helping them adjust to changes, introduce the best practices, including through standardisation, and monitor compliance with them.

From the date of the establishment of the first SRO, all payment acceptance operators included in the relevant register of the Bank of Russia become obliged to join any SRO in this sector within 90 days, as stipulated by the law. After the expiry of the said period, all operators that have not joined an SRO will have to terminate their payment acceptance activities.

As a reminder, the Bank of Russia register includes more than 600 payment acceptance operators as of today. People may pay for goods, housing and utility services, communications, television and other services as well as make mandatory payments via their cash desks and payment terminals.