Negotiations underway for connecting "Shetab" banking system to Mastercard; Seif tells ILNA

"Valiollah Seif", Governor of Iran’s Central Bank in his interview with ILNA, regarding measures taken in connecting Iran’s Shetab banking system to International payment systems like MasterCard and Visa, told: "We did two things simultaneously, first we let currency exchange shops to use international cards under Central Bank supervision and sell these cards instead of exchanges. Besides, the central bank is looking for ways to develop necessary infrastructure in providing the grounds for connecting these international cards to Iranian national banks’ switch cards."  

He added: "Some of these countries, like Japan, China and Russia are more prepared in this regard. Nevertheless we have more problems in cards that are connected to the US. There are limitations which we are trying to address and are trying to further resolve the issue through negotiations."

Seif stressed: "In addition to these facts, we’re also trying to get in touch with some of our neighboring countries to connect our national card’s switches, in a way that regular bank cards of these financial institutions can get used in our countries."

CBI governor also emphasized: "The project is underway and in this respect there’re negotiations under way with our neighboring Azerbaijan. We also had negotiations with Turkey and hope to operationalize them in the year ahead."

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