After launching a digital rouble early next year, Russia plans to use the currency in mutual settlements with China as it seeks to reduce Washington’s global financial hegemony, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

Russia, like many countries, has been developing digital money over the last couple of years to modernise its financial system, speed up payments and head off the threat of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin gaining influence.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Alexander Pankin revealed that the Bank of Russia is actively developing the Financial Message Transmission System.

Russia believes that a gradual shift from the SWIFT interbank payment system to more secure channels for sending financial information protected from external pressure is necessary, according to Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin in an interview for TASS.

“In 2014 Gennady Timchenko, a billionaire businessman and an ally of Russia president Vladimir Putin, sang the praises of a new UnionPay card he obtained after sanctions rendered his Visa and Mastercards useless. “It works perfectly,” he told Russian news agency Tass of the card issued by China’s UnionPay. “And it is accepted in a lot of places. In some sense, it will be more reliable than Visa. At least the Americans won’t be able to grab it.” Timchenko’s wallet refresh echoed Putin’s larger push to reshape his country’s payments system after western sanctions were imposed on Russian banks following the 2014 invasion of Crimea.”

“Citigroup Inc. has processed the $117 million Russia transferred to pay two bond coupons, and has sent the cash further along the payment chain, according to a person familiar with the matter. The funds are no longer with Citigroup, the person said, declining to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly on the issue. A spokeswoman for Citigroup declined to comment. The funds were denominated in dollars, two separate people said.”

“Russia’s card payment system Mir, which was set up in 2015 after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow, is now connected to Apple Pay, the card issuer said on Tuesday. More than 95 million Mir cards have been issued by Russia’s National Card Payment System (NSPK), accounting for about a third of Russia’s card market which was previously dominated by international payment systems Visa and Mastercard.”

“As Europe’s proposed alternative to Visa and Mastercard takes shape, evidence from Russia suggests that an upstart rival can break the American giants’ duopoly – if government is prepared to put its finger on the scale. The European Central Bank has long-floated the idea of a home-grown cross-border scheme capable of taking on Visa and Mastercard.Last year, a host of the continent’s banks finally unveiled plans to take action through the European Payments Initiative (EPI), which promises a unified pan-European payment system, offering a card for consumers and merchants across Europe, a digital wallet and P2P payments.”

“Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender, and search company Yandex are hoping to capture the country’s Rbs1.1tn ecommerce market with a new online marketplace, Beru, which they say will be a “Russian Amazon”.  The $1bn joint venture, which launched on Wednesday, is key to Sberbank chief executive Herman Gref’s plan to diversify the state-run bank by creating an “ecosystem” that provides everything from medical services to cyber security.”

“Yandex Money, which is considered the equivalent of PayPal in Russia, has introduced a new feature to its Checkout product that enables online stores and services to provide their customers with an option of paying for purchases in installments, according to a press release. The installment plan will be available to the users immediately once they fill out a simple form at the Yandex.Checkout’s website.”