Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 11 / Trend E. Aliyev /
The development of the payment card market increases the transparency of Azerbaijan's microeconomics, Azerbaijani Unibank executive director Jalal Gasimov said on Monday.
"It not a secret that unfortunately, a certain part of the private sector is still in the shadows and is trying not to be connected to any system of cashless payments, seeking to evade taxation," he told Trend. "However, the competition, the development of a payment card segment and the popularity of branded credit products force them to do this."
According to him, the transparency of microeconomics is being increased. This leads to more long-term prospects of its development.
"First of all, real turnover of an object is obvious," he said. "This reduces the credit risks of the borrower. The cost of resources is reduced for the borrower. Moreover, the inflow of funds into the banking system is increased with the growth of cashless payments. The more is the volume of these funds, the more is the resource of the bank, especially free of charge. This will cheapen a resource base of banks and make loans issued by these banks cheaper for the customers."
According to the Azerbaijani Central Bank, the number of payment cards in the country in July increased by 1.4 percent - up to 5.375 million units. Their number increased by 11.79 percent compared to the same period of 2012. The total turnover on payment cards through ATMs and POS- terminals in July amounted to 920 million manat, and the total number of operations - 5.982 million units. Around 1,004 transactions on credit cards totaling 148 million manat were made in July 2013.
The official exchange rate is 0,7844 AZN/USD on Sept. 11.
