Novosti Pridnestrovya has been reporting that soon Pridnestrovie will have its own national payment system. This project has long been elaborated by Pridnestrovie's central bank. The first concept saw the light in 2011, and in 2013 the government decided to form an interagency group on this issue.
The work of the group has resulted in the establishment of Pridnestrovie's National Payment System (PNPS), which will become operational since 1 July. Aleksey Kochetov, head of PNPS Department of the PRB, gave detailed information on the project on Radio 1.
«This is a set of hardware and software means which includes the central bank, Pridnestrovie's authorised banks and trade organisations so that our citizens (cardholders) can use plastic cards for non-cash transactions," he said.
«Pridnestrovie's national payment system is integrated into Russia's PRO100 system, which enables Pridnestrovian cardholders to use them in Russia. Transactions will be available in all terminals supporting the PRO100 system.
According to Aleksey Kochetov, this will considerably facilitate travels to Russia for Pridnestrovian citizens as there will be no need to exchange or declare currency when crossing the border. In case a citizen has only Pridnestrovian roubles on his card account, the money be automatically converted into Russian roubles when making transactions in Russia's terminals. This applies to other currencies as well.
Besides, security is an undeniable advantage of keeping money on the plastic card account.
«If the card is lost or stolen, the cardholders's money will be safe provided the card is blocked at the proper time," said the economist.
Since 1 July, Eximbank will start operations with Pridnestrovie's payment system. Sberbank, Ipotechnyi Bank and Tiraspromstroybank have expressed wish to join the project.
The department head is sure that equipping trade organisations with PNPS terminals will not take too long. According to him, it is advantageous, in the first place, for trade organisations as buyers usually spend more money when using plastic cards rather than cash.
The introduction of the PNPS is advantageous for the government as well. «It is advantageous for the state because payment operations will become cashless, that is, shadow transactions will be excluded, tax base will increase, and cash production expenses will decrease," said Aleksey Kochetov.
