Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 31
By Anvar Mammadov – Trend:
The number of banks issuing plastic cards of the Unionpay International payment system may increase in Azerbaijan, AzeriCard processing center told Trend Aug. 31.
Presently, only one Azerbaijani bank - MuganBank issues and acquires cards of this payment system.
"But this process has just begun and it is impossible to compare the penetration of Unionpay with Visa or MasterCard," the center said. “The International Bank of Azerbaijan is also cooperating with this system, but it only acquires, that is accepts cards of this system, but does not issue them. People are greatly interested in Unionpay. So in the future several banks will start issuing cards of this payment system.”
AzeriCard continues to hold negotiations with local and foreign banks to expand its base. Presently, the center ensures processing and supports 22 banks in Azerbaijan and abroad.
"Presently, the number of cards of AzeriCard's processing center exceeds two million,” AzeriCard said. “We work with the subsidiaries of the International Bank in Georgia and Russia, as well as with KDB Bank Uzbekistan. The negotiations are underway to expand the base of our partners. We are greatly interested in cooperation with new foreign partners.”
Unionpay International was established in 2002 by the State Council and the National Bank of China. It is a leader in the world in terms of the number of issued plastic cards and ranks second on the turnover of cards. Plastic cards issued by this payment system are accepted in 162 countries.
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