Azerbaijan, Baku, August 26/Trend, E.Aliyev/
The number of payment cards is likely to reach six million units in 2014, Executive Director of the Millikart Group Processing Centre, Jalal Orujov told Trend on Friday.
"We are currently in sixth place for the number of cards issued among former USSR countries after Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan which is mainly determined by population numbers in these countries. However, if we take a percentage ratio to the total number of population, then we are ahead of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus," Orujov said.
According to him, Azerbaijan is the unqualified leader in the South Caucasus region in this sphere.
"Both for the number of plastic cards and for the relative per capita we are in first place. We overtook Georgia and Armenia long ago," Orujov noted.
The Millikart Group executive director believes the current tendency speaks for optimistic prognoses.
"The level of our market's success is still determined by the quantity of cards, but not by the volume of turnover. Meanwhile, if further development continues at the same pace, I believe that the number of payment cards will exceed six million units mainly thanks to extraordinary popularity of branded credit products offered by a number of banks in the country among population," Orujov stressed.
According to the data from the Azerbaijani Central Bank, the number of credit cards in the country amounted to 636,000 in the first six months of 2013. This figure has increased by 48.94 per cent since the beginning of the year. For comparison, as of January 1, 2013, there were around 427,000 credit cards in the country.
As of July 1, 2013, over 5.3 million payment cards were issued by the country's banks. Their number has increased by 300,000 (5.5 per cent) since the beginning of the year.
Expert: Payment cards set to increase by 20 per cent in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan, Baku, August 26/Trend, E.Aliyev/
The number of payment cards is likely to reach six million units in 2014, Executive Director of the Millikart Group Processing Centre, Jalal Orujov told Trend on Friday.
"We are currently in sixth place for the number of cards issued among former USSR countries after Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan which is mainly determined by population numbers in these countries. However, if we take a percentage ratio to the total number of population, then we are ahead of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus," Orujov said. .
According to him, Azerbaijan is the unqualified leader in the South Caucasus region in this sphere.
"Both for the number of plastic cards and for the relative per capita we are in first place. We overtook Georgia and Armenia long ago," Orujov noted.
The Millikart Group executive director believes the current tendency speaks for optimistic prognoses.
"The level of our market's success is still determined by the quantity of cards, but not by the volume of turnover. Meanwhile, if further development continues at the same pace, I believe that the number of payment cards will exceed six million units mainly thanks to extraordinary popularity of branded credit products offered by a number of banks in the country among population," Orujov stressed.
According to the data from the Azerbaijani Central Bank, the number of credit cards in the country amounted to 636,000 in the first six months of 2013. This figure has increased by 48.94 per cent since the beginning of the year. For comparison, as of January 1, 2013, there were around 427,000 credit cards in the country.
As of July 1, 2013, over 5.3 million payment cards were issued by the country's banks. Their number has increased by 300,000 (5.5 per cent) since the beginning of the year.
