Azerbaijan, Baku, July 30 /Trend, I. Khalilova/
With the aim of expanding its market, as well as increasing the POS-terminal network, Bank Respublika received a license to embark in electronic commerce with Visa International payment system, the bank told Trend on Saturday.
"Taking into consideration the willingness of partners' networks to accept plastic cards for payments, as well as the obvious advantages of non-cash payments which clients receive, the bank made a decision to receive the status of acquirer of Visa International cards. Now Bank Respublika can install POS-terminals and allow its clients to pay for goods and services via Visa card." The bank said.
This license gives the bank opportunity to sign agreements with trade enterprises on the installment and maintenance of POS-terminals without resorting to intermediaries, which will also facilitate the installation of "virtual" terminals by the bank to make online payments possible.
As the bank noted, the advantage of using Bank Respublika cards is that the bank doesn't charge fees for them. Moreover, all cards of the bank, including Visa cards are connected to the Paykart bonus system which has about 50 partners.
As of June 1, the total number of active cards In Bank Respublika amounted to 68,892. The bank installed around 52 ATMs and about 751 POS-terminals.
The bank began to operate on May 22, 1992 and became one of the leading banks of Azerbaijan.
Among the shareholders of the bank there are two largest German financial institutions-the investment company DEG, a member of KfW banking group and Sparkassen International Development Trust, a member of Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe financial group, which has held a 25%+1 share of Bank Respublika since April 28,2005.
