09 октября 2014 16:06

National payment system in Kazakhstan unfeasible: experts

Photo courtesy of wgts.org

Is there a need for a national payment system in Kazakhstan? If so, will it be feasible?

The questions have been raised after the U.S.-sanctioned Russian banks were denied access to Visa and MasterCard in March this year, which clearly showed that the financial industry was dominated by the West.

The former head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan Grigory Marchenko was speaking to a Russian news agency Lenta.ru when he said that Kazakhstan needed a payment system of its own because relying on foreign services provided by large financial corporations was imprudent and constituted a threat to Kazakhstan's national security.

Marchenko said that the Customs Union countries were excessively dependent on foreign payment systems. In addition, the introduction of e-currencies by major Western corporations exacerbated the threat to the national security.

“If central banks of emerging countries fail to introduce e-money within the following 3 years, it will be too late to do it in five years’ time. The situation in many countries will look as follows: half of their cash transactions will effected in US Dollars, with the e-money realm dominated by Apple, Google and Facebook. How can one manage a system that is run from abroad?” he was quoted as saying.

Some experts, however, do not view this developments as a danger to Kazakhstan or believe it is possible to build a completely independent system in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews reports.

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