The deputies of Russia’s State Duma agreed on the wording of an inquiry to head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev. The MPs are worried about the lack of transparency within the payment systems that are currently operating in Russia; the systems do not disclose the particulars of their rate policies or the terms of their partnership with the banks. It has been suggested that the Federal Antimonopoly Service should look into the activity of the payment systems in question, RBC daily reports.

According to the enquiry, there is now a number of payment systems in Russia that offer their services to various consumer categories, including private individuals, trading companies, and banks.

Head of the Financial Markets Committee Vladimir Reznik, who presented the inquiry to the State Duma, said nearly every cardholder has been faced with some problem or other, which had to do with a commission charged for taking out some cash out of an ATM, or with the commission taken off the companies that accept the cards.

The problems concern not only the end users but the banks as well. The Duma deputies also wanted to find out more about the terms upon which the banks join the payment systems. These are often confronted with some difficulties when they agree to cooperate with the international payment systems, as the full terms of the agreements and the existing limitations are only explained only the first cooperation agreements have been reached.

This is why the deputies intend to ask head of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service Igor Artemiev to inspect the payment systems and check whether they comply with the existing antimonopoly legislation.