Azerbaijan, Baku, May 16 / Trend A.Akhundov /
Today, Azerbaijan is on par with Turkey in terms of the pace of development of the plastic card market.
This is stated in an interview with a leading specialist of the bank card department of the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) Kenul Sultanova, published on Wednesday in the Taxes newspaper of the Ministry of Taxes.
"As of January 1, 2012 Azerbaijan has registered 4.58 million active cards. The number of operations with plastic cards in 2011 reached 51 million. That is one card for every 12 operations. In comparison, for each card in the Ukraine there is one operation, in Poland three or four. Today Azerbaijan is on par with Turkey in terms of the pace of development of the plastic cards market," Sultanova said.
She said that European countries now plan to switch completely to a non-cash market system.
"For example, Turkey plans to do it until 2023. Given the growth of the card market in Azerbaijan, I believe that by this time we can see our country in this row. Based on the experience of foreign countries it can be said that the use of electronic commerce is very important. In the last three years in European countries the use of these services is growing every year by about 50 per cent," Sultanova said.
She noted that the IBA proposals to build a cashless economy in Azerbaijan are related to the promotion of this process.
"In this direction we try through the media to provide the public with extensive information about use of plastic cards. At the same time we prepare promotional preferential campaigns for trade facilities. As the number of card transactions increased, an interesting step may also be a reduction in tariffs for services by processing companies," Sultanova said.
At present, the total number of cards issued by the IBA is 1.87 million units, of which 1.827 million are debit, 43,000 are credit. Thus, the IBA provides 40 per cent of the plastic card market of the country.
"In shops, boutiques, restaurants, hotels and other facilities using cards the IBA set up 3978 POS-terminals. Their number is increasing day by day," Sultanova said.
The International Bank of Azerbaijan was founded in January 1992 and is the largest bank in the country. The main shareholder is the government of Azerbaijan, which owns 50.2 per cent stake, 49.8 per cent is owned by private individuals and legal entities.