Deadline for pensioners to switch to Mir extended through 1 October 2020
Banks are now authorised to carry on with transfers of pensions to any cards after 1 July 2020. The decision will save pensioners the trouble of visiting credit institutions’ offices under a self-isolation regime to obtain Mir cards. The Bank of Russia has published the relevant Information Letter on its website.
Under legislation, banks had until 1 July this year to switch pensioners whose pensions are paid in into card accounts to Mir, the national payment instrument. As before, pensions can be paid in cash into accounts unlinked to a card, among other options. Most pensioners who were to have migrated to Mir are already using this card system. Yet some pensioners have yet to receive them.
‘We realise that it is imperative that pensioners follow self-isolation rules in current conditions. Hence the decision to extend the transition deadline through 1 October this year. This means, they will not have to visit banks to receive pensions’, Alla Bakina, Director of the Bank of Russia National Payment System Department, explains.
Banks are also recommended to switch to remote client interaction in the case of pensioners entitled to Mir cards, providing card delivery services if possible.