CBA toughens requirements for non-cash transactions
By Aynur Jafarova
The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has required that all entities conducting non-cash currency exchange transactions in the country regularly report to the bank on the their transactions.
According to a newly-released document by CBA, the reports by the entities - including banks, local branches of foreign banks, and post offices - will help the central bank develop monetary policies.
CBA added that the reports would also facilitate studying demands for domestic and foreign currency, setting exchange operations' goals and directions, as well as minimizing the risks during the revaluation of funds in foreign currency in case of official exchange rate changes.
The documents say, the entities are supposed to report both intra-bank exchange transactions (including those on Bloomberg and BEST platforms, as well as transactions done outside trading systems), and the inter-bank currency exchange transactions.
Meanwhile, the market participants should provide the CBA with different information, from compliance with limits on open currency position set by the bank to exchange operations conducted during repayment of loans and interests thereon, placement, withdrawal of deposits, exchange of cash, as well as speculative operations on making profit from the difference in rates between the currencies.
Reports should be provided in electronic form each month, within two working days after the end of the reporting period. The reports must be provided on a daily basis in the case of a written request by the regulator.
Azerbaijan has developed a modern bank infrastructure which enables the financial entities to conduct the non-cash and online transactions. The volume of online transactions has increased by 10 percent in 2013.
The card infrastructure in the country developed in 2013 and the number of the payment cards amounted to 5.5 million units.
The number of the payment cards increased by 9 percent, ATMs by 8 percent and the volume of non-cash transactions in the POS-terminals by 1.8 times compared to 2012.
The expansion of non-cash transactions in 2014 is among the main priorities of the CBA. The main goal is to set the cash volume of the country at the level of the leading world countries.
To this end, the government is set to spread access to the online banking services in different regions. Meanwhile, CBA will conduct measures to expand innovative payment tools and non-cash and online transactions. Legislative basis for online payment service will also be initiated as well.