BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9. The implementation of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology and tokenization in the instant payment system (IPS) is on the agenda, Deputy Director of the Payment Systems and Products Development Department of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) Ramil Mahmudov said at the 10th International Finance and Banking Summit taking place in Baku, Trend reports.
Mahmudov noted that after the introduction of NFC technology, especially after the activation of "Apple Pay" and similar solutions, "P2P" (person-to-person) transfers via QR technology already seem to be a waste of time to some extent. According to him, although in international practice there is integration of NFC, "Bluetooth" or token solutions into instant payment systems, this approach hasn't yet been globalized due to certain restrictions imposed by smartphone manufacturers.
Nevertheless, the CBA official emphasized that this issue is included in the institution's action plan (scope).
"One of the main goals set by the Central Bank leadership is precisely to ensure the convenience of payments. Our goal is that users who can easily pay through Apple Pay today can perform similar transactions through the instant payment system by taking the same steps. Our internal UX/UI team is also working in this direction," he explained.
Noting that the main focus is currently on building the infrastructure, the official added that after achieving a certain level of penetration in the market, the issue of implementing NFC technology and tokenizing transactions through both the Interbank Card Center (ICC) and the instant payment system will be addressed.
