New Monetary System. Part VI: Competition among payment systems

Payment and settlement systems ensure the transfer of money between economic agents and are an integral part of the monetary, credit, and financial system. They constitute one of the three key structural elements of the global monetary system, alongside reserve currencies and crisis-support mechanisms.

The U.S. leadership in the international payments system is evident. As far back as 1914, the American telegraph company Western Union issued the first prototype of debit cards for interest-free payments. In the late 1960s, U.S. companies Diners Club, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express captured the global payment card market.

To counter the monopolization of the rapidly developing international payments market by American companies, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as SWIFT, was established in Europe in 1973. Today, this service brings together 11.5 thousand banks from more than 220 jurisdictions.

In 1980, the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (later renamed the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures, CPMI) began operating in Europe under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, with the goal of reducing systemic risks and strengthening the infrastructure of the global financial market. Today, within the CPMI framework, models are being developed to interlink national payment and settlement systems, including those based on multicurrency platforms of digital currencies.

Meanwhile, the globalization of payment systems has not occurred. SWIFT is used only as an intermediary to transmit information about an upcoming money transfer from one bank to another, while the actual payment and settlement functions are performed by national operators closely connected with the central and commercial banks of the respective states.

For example, about 90% of U.S. dollar payments between companies, banks, and government bodies in various countries worldwide are carried out through the U.S. national payment systems Fedwire and CHIPS.

After a number of Russian banks were disconnected from SWIFT and the “toxicity” of the dollar as a global currency increased, the need to create alternative payment systems worldwide is growing. BRICS countries show particular interest in this issue.

In China, since 2015, the cross-border interbank payment system CIPS has been operating, combining financial messaging with the execution of actual payments and settlements. In India, the UPI payment system has been launched; in Brazil, Pix; in Iran, SEPAM.

The national payment system of the Russian Federation is developing most actively. It includes the following elements: the Bank of Russia payment system, the National Payment Card System, the Faster Payments System, the Financial Messaging System, and the payment system of the National Settlement Depository.

As of 01.01.2025, participants in the Bank of Russia payment system (PS BR) numbered 1,418 organizations, including 1,014 credit institutions (branches), 187 participants that are not credit institutions, and 217 subdivisions of the Bank of Russia. On average, each PS BR participant accounted for 10.7 million transactions totaling 3.2 trillion rubles.

In 2025, 20.0 billion money transfers totaling 4,853.5 trillion rubles were processed via PS BR (an increase of 32.2% in number and 6.1% in volume).

The National Payment Card System (NSPK) processes transactions on Mir cards and on cards of international payment systems, and develops products and services of the Mir payment system. NSPK has operated since 2014 and is 100% owned by the Bank of Russia.

In 2025, the number of Mir cards increased by 18.9% and, as of 01.01.2026, exceeded 476.5 million. Prior to the European Union sanctions introduced in 2026, Mir cards were accepted in Turkey, Vietnam, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia.

The Bank of Russia acts as the operator and settlement center of the Faster Payments System (SBP), while NSPK serves as its operational, payment, and clearing center. SBP includes 225 Russian banks and 2.2 million merchants and service providers. SBP makes it possible to conduct interbank transfers by mobile phone number 24 hours a day, 365 days a year  in C2C,  C2B, B2C, B2B, C2G formats, as well as cross-border transfers between individuals and payments at foreign merchants and service providers in a number of friendly countries.

In 2025, 18.3 billion transactions totaling 103.0 trillion rubles were processed via SBP, exceeding the previous year’s figures by 1.4 times in number and 1.5 times in volume, respectively.

As an alternative tool to protect corporate settlements and payments amid sanctions risks, in 2014 the Bank of Russia created the Financial Messaging System (SPFS), analogous to SWIFT. The system is used by 579 organizations, more than a quarter of which are non-residents of the Russian Federation.

Since 2019, a project to connect the payment systems of Russia, India, and China has been implemented on the basis of SPFS. In India, SPFS is being implemented directly. In China and Iran, the system was connected to existing domestic payment programs—CIPS and SEPAM.

The payment system of the National Settlement Depository (PS NSD) handles money transfers for transactions involving Russian and foreign securities. NSD is a structural element of the Moscow Exchange Group. NSD offers settlement services, depository services, registration and settlement for over-the-counter transactions (trade repository), liquidity management services, information services, and technical services.

NSD provides a financial messaging platform service (“Transit 2.0”), enabling the exchange of financial messages and electronic documents between banks and corporations.

In 2025, the volume of money transfers within PS NSD amounted to 156.8 trillion rubles (in 2024—110.9 trillion rubles). In the structure of PS NSD money transfers, 27.7% were transfers related to transactions executed on organized trading venues, and 28.8% to transactions executed off organized trading venues.

Thus, Russia has already created all the necessary infrastructure for full-fledged servicing of operations and transactions in the money and financial markets, ready to offer its services at the highest technical and operational level to both domestic and foreign users. Such readiness is крайне important in the process of the ruble’s expansion beyond the Russian economy and the intensification of competition among national payment systems for the right to service the international segment of the global monetary system.

Author: Doctor of Economics, Professor, Department of World Economy and World Finance, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Alexey Vladimirovich Kuznetsov.