Tehran, Iran, March 16
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
It requires a great amount of time to have Visa and MasterCard working in Iran, said Mohsen Qaderi, an official with Iran's banking and credit cards organization Shaparak.
"Right now the Central Bank of Iran has adopted the policy of holding regular talks (with the companies)," he said, Tasnim news agency reported March 16.
Iran says it is preparing the ground for the people to use credit cards provided by Asian banks until the restrictions for using the US payment operators like Visa and MasterCard are removed.
Two weeks ago the country's media quoted an official with the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) as saying that there are active negotiations underway between the Iranian side and Japan Credit Bureau (JBC) as well as China UnionPay (CUP).
Davood Mohammad-Beigi, the CBI director for payment affairs, said at the time that JCB and CUP cards will be available to the Iranians before September.