July 15 2016

July 15 2016, Tokyo: JCB International Co, Ltd. (“JCBI”), the international operations subsidiary of JCB, is pleased to announce the start of partnership with National System of Payment Cards (“NSPK”), a subsidiary of Central Bank of Russia, to issue co-badged Mir/JCB cards that can access to the Mir merchant network in the Russian Federation and JCB's global network with about 31.1 million acceptance locations.

Mir is the Russian national payment brand operated by NSPK, which was established in 2015 to create the Russian national payment system infrastructure. The first issuing bank of Mir/JCB cards will be Gazprombank, which is planning to start issuing in August 2016, and other banks will follow in the near future.

“The international development of the national payment system “Mir” is one of the priorities for the medium term and the beginning of issuance of MIR/JCB Card is an important event in this direction,” said Chairman of the Board, General Director of NSPK, Vladimir Komlev. “Cooperation with JCB - one of the world's largest payment brands is expanding the geography of card acceptance “Mir” abroad and the possibility of cardholders of national payment cards to pay for goods and services in other countries.”

Kimihisa Imada, Deputy President of JCBI, stated, “The new card issuing partnership with NSPK offers JCBI the opportunity to expand the JCB brand in the Russian Federation, a market with a high potential for growth in both card issuing and merchant acquiring business, as the central bank is making progress on building the payments infrastructure. I am delighted that the partnership enables NSPK and JCBI to provide people in the Russian Federation with more attractive services such as JCB Plaza Lounges and other T&E services that embody the Japanese spirit of hospitality.”

About Payment system “Mir” - the Russian National Payment System. In December 2015, released the first card “Mir” . To date, participants in the payment system were more than 100 banks, some of them started issuing the Mir cards and connecting their devices (ATMs and terminals) to accept them. It is planned that “Mir” will be expanded in Russia, also Mir cards will be used outside of Russia by co-badged programs with international payment systems. The operator of the national payment system “Mir” is a joint-stock company “National System of Payment Cards (NSPK)”. NSPK ensures the continuity of operations by cards of international payment systems in Russia, construction and development of the Russian system of payment cards. Domestic card transactions by all payment systems, including international, are carried out through the processing of an operational and payment clearing center operated by NSPK (OPCC NSPK).

Official site of the SS “Mir” www.mironline.ru
Official site of JSC “nspk” www.nspk.ru