BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 27. Visa is pulling out all the stops to broaden the horizons and bring more Azerbaijani banks into the fold of Apple Pay and Google Pay, senior director and regional manager of Visa in Azerbaijan Nurlan Hajiyev told Trend in an exclusive interview.
"Tokenization was introduced in Azerbaijan only in 2019. Still, compared to many other nations—including those that adopted this technology earlier—the country's tokenized payment penetration is already far greater. We are pleased to report that, as of right now, the most sophisticated and contemporary method—contactless—is used in every fifth non-cash transaction in Azerbaijan (this includes, for instance, payments done online in e-commerce or using real cards). This is an amazing indicator," Hajiyev said.
Visa's senior director also reminded that 14 Azerbaijani banks are currently certified to work with Apple Pay, while 15 are certified to work with Google Pay.
"Azerbaijan has made a significant leap in this direction in a short time: Apple Pay came to the country in 2021 and Google Pay in 2022. We certainly hope that the number of connected banks in Azerbaijan will continue to grow. We are happy to cooperate with various market players and are open to new partnerships," he emphasized.
According to Hajiyev, shortly, the company is set on rolling out a fresh project in Azerbaijan as a part of the She's Next Empowered by Visa global initiative to lend a hand to women entrepreneurs.
"The initiative hit the ground running in Azerbaijan in 2021 and struck a chord with Azerbaijani women right off the bat. In the same year, the first wave of the program was implemented. Over 1,000 Azerbaijani women attended educational webinars on various topics useful for running a business. In 2022, we expanded the initiative by holding the Visa Elevator Pitch Day contest.
More than 600 female entrepreneurs and women planning to start their businesses applied to participate. The contest finals were very touching, and the emotions were hard to describe: all participants presented well-developed, important, and inspiring projects.
Cash awards were given to two contest winners so that they could grow their enterprises. Soon, we plan to launch the third wave of the She's Next Empowered by Visa initiative in Azerbaijan," Hajiyev said.
The regional manager of Visa in Azerbaijan also discussed further business options offered by the organization.
“Today, She's Next digital community platform from Visa is available to women entrepreneurs from the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus. This is an excellent platform that unites entrepreneurs and women leaders and provides them with tools for networking, sharing experiences, and expanding their businesses internationally," he added.
According to the senior director and regional manager of Visa, the platform has over 1,000 active users today.
"We have implemented a transport project in the country together with Azerbaijan Railways, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, and the Central Bank: we launched contactless payments on the Absheron Ring Railway, on the Baku-Sumgayit route, which includes 14 stations. At each of them, passengers can pay the fare by payment card, as well as by phone, watch, and payment ring," Visa's regional manager shared.
Hajiyev also emphasized that transportation projects require the combination and integration of various elements of the ecosystem, and Visa is open to cooperation with all market players and is pleased to continue to share experiences and achievements in this area.
According to him, over the past five years, Visa has invested more than $500 million in the development of artificial intelligence and data infrastructure.
"Artificial intelligence nowadays is one of the most promising industries and a global trend. Visa has been working on developing and implementing artificial intelligence for 30 years, being one of the pioneers in this field," the senior director said.
Besides, according to him, one of the main areas of application of artificial intelligence is ensuring the security of the payment ecosystem.
"Visa has deployed 100 different tools that use artificial intelligence to enable safer money movement and prevent fraud before it happens, among which I want to highlight the Visa Advanced Authorization solution. Over the past five years, Visa has invested $10 billion to develop systems to combat fraud and monitor such transactions, including $500 million in artificial intelligence technology. This has enabled us to prevent more than $40 billion worth of fraud in 2023, almost double the amount in 2022," the regional manager added.
Hajiyev pointed out that Visa cooperates not only with banks, fintechs, and financial institutions but also with regulatory authorities and government agencies in Azerbaijan.
“We are proud of the successful partnerships that we have been able to form: for example, with the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan. As part of the upcoming Summer Olympic Games, Visa will be one of the main partners of our Olympic team, which we are very proud of. We believe that our athletes who will be in Paris this year will be able to hit it out of the park and even raise the bar, proving that Azerbaijan is a force to be reckoned with in the world of sports,” he said.
According to Hajiyev, Visa also cooperates with the Education Development Fund under the Ministry of Education and Science of Azerbaijan.
“In March, during our Visa Cashless Forum, we announced our partnership for the first time and are actively collaborating in various areas, including social initiatives,” said the senior director of Visa.
Additionally, he underscored that the Central Bank of Azerbaijan is one of Visa's most significant partners in the local market.
“We have many joint projects and events with the Central Bank. Thanks to our partnership, the Visa Token Service was introduced. Also, with the support of the Central Bank, a transport project on the railways was launched. Together with it, we worked on the implementation of Tap to Phone, a technology that turns an Android smartphone into a POS terminal.
We have recently implemented a program to improve financial literacy among schoolchildren. We also conducted seminars for the Central Bank on various areas, including payment security. Our partnership with the Central Bank is only growing stronger, and we are always happy to support initiatives for the development of digital payments in Azerbaijan,” Hajiyev emphasized.
According to him, the Azerbaijani market has taken a giant leap forward in the realm of digital payments.
"I will name just a few figures: over the past two years, the number of cashless transactions on Visa cards in Azerbaijan has increased 3.3 times, and their volume has increased 2.6 times," the senior director said.
Also, he discussed the initiatives that Visa has executed in collaboration with its stakeholders in the country.
"Among the initiatives we have implemented in Azerbaijan recently is the update and relaunch of the Visa Pay City 2.0 platform. This platform offers privileges, discounts, and automated bonuses from over a hundred partners. It is also focused on tokenized transactions, which encourages the use of cashless payments," Hajiyev said.
According to him, Visa also keeps its eyes peeled on the development of travel directions.
"Visa premium cardholders have access to a plethora of services and benefits that might enhance their travel experience. Our collaboration with Sea Breeze, Azerbaijan's biggest resort, will carry on in the summer since it has become an excellent tradition. On resort property, Visa premium cardholders can expect pleasant surprises, discounts, and other perks," Hajiyev emphasized.
Visa's regional manager in Azerbaijan also added that to support small and medium-sized businesses, Visa, together with Kapital Bank, introduced Tap to Phone technology for the first time.
"With this innovation, Android-powered phones with NFC modules may function as point-of-sale terminals, doing away with the necessity to purchase and set up cumbersome cash register hardware. Our number one goal has always been and will always be educating SMEs on the benefits of accepting digital payments," he concluded.
To note, Visa (NYSE: V) is a global leader in the digital payments industry. Visa processes payment transactions between consumers, businesses, and financial and government institutions in more than 200 countries and territories. Visa's mission is to unite the world through an innovative, convenient, reliable, and secure payment network to promote consumer well-being and business and economic prosperity.
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