Sberbank fails to buy Maestro

MasterCard has refused to sell the Maestro brand to Russia’s Sberbank, RIA Novosti reports.

Russia wants the card to operate both in the country and abroad. Timur Batyrev, the head of the national payment system department of the Bank of Russia, said that it would need cooperation with international payment systems. Formation of infrastructure to launch the national pay card will need about half a year. Distribution of at least 100 million cards will take about two years.