Head of Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Russia and Iran are working on the integration of Mir and Shetab systems

MOSCOW, March 27 – RIA Novosti. Dmitry Birichevsky, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told RIA Novosti that Russia and Iran continue to work on the integration of the Russian payment system “Mir” with the Iranian “Shetab” through the relevant departments.

“Given our shared focus on ensuring the sustainability of bilateral payments and settlement infrastructure, independent of third-country intermediaries, Russia prioritizes cooperation with Iran in financial and banking departments,” he said. In conversation with the agency.

In May 2022, Iran and the Russian Federation discussed the link between the payment systems Mir and Shetab, agreeing to switch to mutual payments in their national currencies. At the end of January, representatives of the Central Banks of the two countries signed an agreement to work on simplifying financial and banking operations. According to Mohammad Reza Farzin, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, the Financial Messaging System of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation has merged with the SEPAM (Electronic Payment Messaging System) of the Central Bank of Iran.

The need to combine the payment systems of the two countries arose in 2018, when Iran was disconnected from the SWIFT international transfer system. In June 2022, a number of Russian banks, such as Sberbank and VTB, were also disconnected from SWIFT due to the situation in Ukraine.