Baku, Azerbaijan, July 18
By Emin Aliyev - Trend:
Azerbaijan is to have a unifeid nation-wide electronic payment system, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan told Trend.
An earlier program was to be implemented for development of cashless payments in the country in 2012-2016, but was delayed due to the approval process.
"It was decided to develop a new document that will cover the same tasks and will be applied in 2015 - 2020, " said, Kamala Gurbanova, Head of Payment Systems and Settlements Department. She added that the draft document will be submitted to the government by end of the year.
Gurbanova further said the CBA worked out the development strategy for non-cash payments in the country until 2020.
As CBA noted, the development strategy project of the national payment system in Azerbaijan will cover five areas: the development of electronic payment infrastructure and broadening its scope by applying the new services; strengthening the institutional framework of e-payments; increased use of innovative technologies in the non-cash transactions; raise public awareness on the use of electronic payment services; promotion of electronic payments.
The implementation of this strategy will limit the circulation of cash in the economy, reduce the use of cash payments between economic entities and to increase transparency in their turnover, according to the CBA representatives.
"Furthermore, its application will transform the use of non-cash settlement instruments in a certain norm in society, to expand the coverage area and the use of electronic payment services based on modern technology and tools," the CBA said.
As of June 1, 2014, Azerbaijani banks had issued 5.97 million payment cards, which is 14 percent more than in January-May last year. Total turnover on payment cards in the ATMs and POS-terminals amounted to 988 million AZN, and the number of operations - 6.634 million units in January-May this year.
The official exchange rate on July 18 is 0.7843 AZN/USD.
