Azerbaijan, Baku, May 26 /Trend, I.Khalilova/
For the development of cashless payment and card business in Azerbaijan, the international payment system Visa has introduced a system of inner-country accountings with Visa in manat (AZ NNSS), to which today 31 Azerbaijani banks have connected, Visa Regional Manager for CIS Alexander Kalita said on Thursday in Baku.
"All these banks are members of Visa, which says that any card in our billing system may participate in the AZ NNSS," said Kalita.
He said the introduction of AZ NNSS allows to reduce the operating costs of banks.
He said the next steps for the development of cashless payments in the country will be to improve the reception infrastructure of Visa cards, activate a debit portfolio, develop new products and services, market segmentation (state-owned companies, large enterprises) and the customer portfolio (target groups - youth, college students).
According to data provided by Visa, as of the end of 2010, a total of over 3.5 million cards were issued in Azerbaijan, of which 3.3 million cards were issued as part of salary and other social projects.