BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 21. Visa is ready to support international companies in financial solutions in entering the Azerbaijani market, Vice President and Regional Manager for Central Asia and Azerbaijan Christina Doros told Trend.
"Visa cooperates with banks and also other payment service companies in this direction, recently. Visa has very candid and constructive partnership in Azerbaijan. Introduction of Visa Token Service technology [tokenization] in Azerbaijan is an example of such cooperation. Tokenization became the basis for building another level of payment service,” Doros said.
“Apple Pay was launched in Azerbaijan on the basis of tokenization, at the end of 2021. This service became a huge impetus for the development of payment industry in Azerbaijan. Nowadays, many people prefer to pay not by cards, but through applications on smartphones and smartwatches,” she noted.
“We see increase in volume of transactions via Apple Pay. Visa is ready to provide necessary support to other payment service companies and to cooperate with them if they are ready to enter Azerbaijani market," Doros added.
She also told about tokenization in e-commerce sphere and noted that this payment method helps to use token for paying online. Payment with usage of token allows customers to ensure maximum security.
Doros said that Visa is actively cooperating with financial institutions in the development of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
"Protection of acceptance and payment of non-cash funds is necessary for development of SMBs, which affects their and also country’s economy,” she added.
“Rise in number of online payments increases the transparency of business activities and tax revenues, which allows government to use extra funds as additional social payments. Country’s economy becomes stronger when the more SMBs participate in digital economy," Doros emphasized.
She also added that very large percentage of payments is concentrated in Azerbaijani regions.
"Customers in Azerbaijan’s Baku have no problems in non-cash payments. Visa has to do some work on development of infrastructure and financial literacy in country’s regions together with partner banks and government. This is necessary to provide digital payment opportunities also in regions," Doros said.
Doros noted that Visa has already taken first step in this direction together with Azerbaijan’s Kapital Bank.
"Introduction of TapToPhone mobile payment solution allows accepting non-cash payments using mobile phone on Android platform. Visa is actively working with Azerbaijani banks in order to develop this direction of non-cash payment," Doros added.