US monitors wages of Belarusians?

Under a government resolution, Belarus-made plastic cards Belkart will be used to pay wages at enterprises. So far, they will be in use parallel to Visa and Maestro, but the foreign cards will be phased out in the future.

Natallia Hramyka, the chief accountant at the Minsk Motor Works, confirmed that Belarus-made cards were being introduced.

"This system covers not only our factory. The electrotechnical plant has used it for one year already. This is a Belarusian system, Belarusisan cards and Belarusian service".

The National Bank of Belarus confirmed to the European Radio for Belarus that all wage projects in the country would transferred to the national card by the end of 2010.

The issue is first of all associated with the national security, says Ivan Pischyk, the chief of payment system department.

"The cards used for wage payments are processed in London (Visa) and Brussels (Master Card). If certain problems arise, we can face a situation when the international payment systems, based mostly in the United States, may create some unpleasant situations. I will not elaborate on the details, because it is a bit restricted information".

All transactions with plastic cards are monitored by foreign processing centers. All the information about transactions is saved and controlled by the owners of the payment systems. The Belarusian system will be autonomous. The information about transctions will not leave the borders of this country.

The economic factor is also important. In order ot make a batch of Visa cards, for instance, Belarusian banks have to wire their money to the foreign payment systems.

The National Bank also said Belkarta would differ from Visa and Master Card functionally. But it will not be possible to use them abroad. 

International plastic cards will aalso continue to be in operation. But people will be encouraged to use the Belarusian cards for the sake of national security.

Photo: daylife.com