2023-05-19 19:47:38
The vice president of the Government of Russia, Dmitri Chernyshenko, assured in Havana this week that his government has already asked the island for the possibility of opening at least three branches of its main financial banks.
According to Chernyshenko, this is intended to make the operations and investments of Russian businessmen on the island easier. They are currently looking at the conditions for this, especially so that the Russian banks themselves are the ones who finance these projects with credits.
“To this end, Cuba offers opportunities to open branches of Russian banks, which will provide financing for Russian projects in Cuba, which will allow both to develop the economy and make investments profitable,” the Russian government official added at a meeting in Cuba.
Chernyshenko also recalled that since this year the magnetic cards of the Russian MIR system can already be used in a first phase. At least Russian tourists or businessmen can now use it at magnetic ATMs and convert their rubles into Cuban pesos.
“We hope that in the very near future it will be possible to pay with Russian Mir cards in Cuban stores, which will have a positive impact on the tourism industry,” added Chernyshenko.
WILL THERE BE RUSSIAN BANKS IN CUBA?
At the end of March, Cuban banks began to use the Russian payment system known as MIR, an alternative to Visa and Mastercard magnetic cards, when these companies “punished” their Russian clients for their government’s invasion of Ukraine. From that date you can extract cash in Cuban pesos from the aforementioned Russian cards.
This payment system was scheduled to start on the island at the end of 2022, in search of a tourist injection from Russia, but there have been technological obstacles to its eventual implementation. In mid-2023, work is still underway for its full implementation in the Cuban financial system.
Regarding Russian banks, what are your main entities? The two largest banks in Russia are Sberbank and VTB, which make international payments in various foreign currencies.
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