National payment system: Russia may end up with a national payment system like Japan’s or China’s which both rely on agreements with foreign counterparts to provide them with access to international markets, President Vladimir Putin said last week at a progress meeting with the CEO of the VTB Group. At the same meeting, the group’s chief Andrei Kostin reported that the merging of VTB’s system with that of United Payment Systems had integrated 300 banks – about 30% of Russia’s banking sector – into one system. ITAR-TASS