Azernews.Az

By Sara Israfilbayova

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) will develop a three-year program of activities for boosting cashless payments and electronic payments by the end of 2017.

A relevant working group, which includes official of various ministries, has already been established.

The American multinational financial services company Mastercard has also been attracted to this process,reads a report on evaluation of the results of implementing measures included in the Strategic Road Map for the development of communication and information technologies in Azerbaijan in the first half of 2017.

Currently, Mastercard and the CBA conduct a joint analysis and diagnosis of the market of cashless payments in the country. They surveyed 560 organizations and 700 customers in Baku and nine regions of the country to determine the factors giving an impetus to cash payments.

“The main reasons for cash payments were classified into three groups, and compared with the results of surveys and interviews. In addition, the volume of cash payments and shadow economy was determined together with leading experts,” according to the report.

The law on Non-Cash Payments, which is still the most discussed in business circles, has come into force since January 1, 2017.

The law was adopted given the need to strengthen accounting in the financial system, through the development of non-cash payments.

The CBA and MasterCard have launched Cashless Azerbaijan project, which includes 3 stages, in February 2017.

The first stage is measuring the country's cash economy, the second-to define a strategy for non-cash payments, and the third stage-to prepare a detailed plan of actions.

The first stage of the project was presented on July 20, the goal of which is to diagnose the factors that cause a high level of cash in the economy, measure the volume of the cash economy, reduce the volume of cash payments and develop cashless payments.

The number of ATMs installed in the country amounted to 2,454 in 2016, the number of POS-terminals 71,164. The figure was 2,694 and 80,301 in 2015, respectively.

Non-cash payments made via POS terminals in Azerbaijan amounted to some 527 million manats ($303.7 million) last year, recording an increase of 131 million manats ($75.49) or 33.1 percent higher than the same indicator of previous year, according to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).

Similar transactions via ATMs amounted to some 329 million manats ($189.6 million), featuring a drop of 9 million manats ($5.18 million) or 2.7 percent as compared to the indices of the last year.

In tote, the volume of non-cash payments in 2016 stood at 856 million manats ($493.3 million), recording an increase of 122 million manats ($70.30) or 16.6 percent.

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