U.S. grants Kazakh banks permission to accept Russian migrants' Mir payment cards
The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which oversees sanctions enforcement, has granted Kazakh banks permission to conduct operations using Russia’s Mir payment system, according to Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market.
The letter sent by OFAC reportedly said that the U.S. “has no objection to the use of Mir payment system cards by private individuals — specifically by citizens who have migrated from Russia to Kazakhstan — to perform operations necessary for daily life activities.”
The agency noted that transactions involving the Mir payment system will continue to be monitored for attempts to evade sanctions.
In September, the U.S. Treasury threatened to impose sanctions against anyone who facilitated the use of Mir payment cards outside of Russia. All Turkish banks, as well as Kazakhstan's largest bank, Halyk Bank, stopped accepting Mir cards in ATMs.
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