Visa opts in to Russian national payment system: The Central Bank of Russia this week confirmed that Visa had signalled its intention to use the country’s national payment system (NBTS) for the processing of transactions that take place within Russia. Legislation passed last year stipulates that international payment systems such as Visa and Mastercard must use Russia’s internal system or make a security deposit with the Central Bank worth 25% of the average daily turnover of all its card transactions in the previous quarter. Mastercard has already agreed to cooperate with the Central Bank. OG