Amonat Bank, the operator of the Tajik national payment system, Korti Milli, has announced the launch as part of a nationwide Tajik strategy to encourage the use of card payments in place of cash. MIR cardholders will now be able to make transactions via Amonat Bank terminals throughout Tajikistan.

In support of the introduction of MIR cards into Tajikistan, the Deputy Director General of the MIR payment system, Sergey Bochkarev, became the first cardholder to withdraw cash from an Amonat Bank ATM at the Payment Technologies Forum in Dushanbe.

“The integration between MIR and Korti Milli has been successfully completed, with the first MIR cards transactions already carried out in Tajikistan. The next stage will be for the members of Korti Milli to have their ATMs and POS terminals accept Russian cards,” said Sergey Bochkarev. “It is also essential that, in the future, our cooperation will enable Korti Milli members to issue cards with the MIR payment application - which will allow cardholders to use cards not only in Tajikistan but also in Russia, as well as in the other CIS countries with which MIR is integrated.”

In order to facilitate the acceptance of MIR cards in Tajikistan, ongoing support and processing services between Amonat Bank and MIR will be provided by Compass Plus.

“We believe that the development of our partnership and the implementation of joint projects between Korti Milli and MIR are key,” said Shukhrat Kholikov, Director of Processing Centre at Korti Milli. “This cooperation will expand the geography of cross card acceptance, facilitate financial transactions in countries that are the MIR members, and also enable MIR cardholders to be served in the Korti Milli network. The timely launch of the integration project was made possible due to the operational work and support of the Compass Plus team.”

Alexey Osipov, Executive Vice President at Compass Plus said: “With so many Russians based in Tajikistan, having their MIR cards accepted will make a huge difference. We look forward to seeing how the use of their cards locally will enhance their lives.”