Non-cash payments develop in Azerbaijan
By Rashid Shirinov
Non-cash payments have become more popular among Azerbaijani population during the last years. More and more citizens transfer their money into their bank cards rather than using cash money.
“The Central Bank and the government of the country realize what enormous expenditure is necessary to ensure cash handling, and try to stimulate the commerce in non-cash form in every way,” Igor Kovalyov, the regional manager of VISA in Azerbaijan, Belarus and Moldova, told Trend.
Last year, Azerbaijani population’s purchases in trade networks were almost fully made by cash – 92% versus 8% of non-cash payments. This year, the situation has slightly changed in favor of cashless payments – now 10% of trade networks payments of Azerbaijan are held without using cash.
Kovalyov told about VISA’s desire of stimulating non-cash payments in Azerbaijan. In many countries of the region cardholders are offered various bonuses and discounts for using electronic payments to encourage cashless payments. “As a result, consumers often use cards for making daily purchases and can make sure about more convenience of this payment method, its security and speed. Due to this, there was an increase in the use of payment cards in all the countries of the region, including in Azerbaijan,” he said.
Cash money are quite expensive -- a number of studies show that countries spend about 1-2% of their GDP to ensure the circulation of money in cash. First of all, cash should be printed and safely transported. In case of cashless money, these problems do not come up.
“The study held by Moody’s, the international rating Agency, for VISA in 2016, showed that the increase of electronic payments’ use in Azerbaijan has added $70 million to GDP,” Kovalyov stressed. Moreover, the development of cashless payments contributed to annual creation of around 1,130 new workplaces.
Non-cash payments are also handy for travel purposes. Bank cards let travelers omit the problem of changing their cash into the money of country they are going to visit. Furthermore, travelers get rid of the necessity of carrying large amount of physical money during their travel.These facts make cashless money even more appropriate for use.
“All countries aim at increasing the share of cashless transactions, but the methods and ways are different. Each market is at its level of development with special priorities. We are happy to share our expertise and technologies to help the development of cashless payments worldwide,” Kovalyov stressed.
VISA is a global payment system that provides cardholders, merchants, financial and governmental institutions in more than 200 countries to fast, secure and reliable electronic payment network. The company was founded in 1958 in California, U.S. Currently, 35 of 37 Azerbaijani banks are memebers of VISA.
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