Bank of Russia approves National Payment System Development Guidelines until 2027

It prioritises advancement of the payment infrastructure, improvement of the regulation, promotion of product competition in the payment services market, and innovation. The regulator focuses on the digital ruble, the universal QR code, biometric payments, Open APIs, and development of the international payment infrastructure.

The document contains measures and indicators to assess whether the goals have been achieved.  For example, the proportion of cashless payment instruments other than bank cards is expected to reach around 15% by late 2027. At present, the overall share of payments made using banks’ payment applications, QR codes, biometric data, the Faster Payments System, and digital rubles does not exceed 10% of the total amount of individuals’ cashless payments. The Guidelines contain five measures and three observed indicators in total.

‘Just 5–7 years ago, card payments accounted for around 95% of all cashless payments. Now, consumers are shifting their preferences towards other instruments. Our task is to provide consumers with a range of options. Whenever they need to make a purchase at a convenience store or on a marketplace, pay for housing and utility services and so on, they should be able to select a suitable payment instrument. We will monitor all the components of this measure. It shows the level of demand for new payment instruments available in the market and how often they are used,’ explained Alla Bakina, Director of the Bank of Russia National Payment System Department.

The targets set by the previous strategic document have been met or exceeded. For example, the proportion of cashless payments in retail turnover reached 83.4% by late 2023 (while the target was 78–80%) and 85.3% as of the end of 2024 Q3. The Bank of Russia forecasts further growth of this indicator without setting any specific targets.