The International Bank of Azerbaijan launched the issue of chip-cards of international payment system Visa International.
Emil Mustafayev, the deputy chairman of the Management Board of the IBA, said that 12,000 cards have been issued thus far. By times the card with magnate line which are in circulation currently will be replaced with the chip cards.
According to regional manager of Visa on CIS countries, Svetlana Georbelidze, along with the project of service payment via cards in metro, which will start in the second quarter, the chip cards will also be in use. The first chip social cards with new design will appear in the market shortly and the pensioners will use it for payment of fairs at metro. Pension cards, which have been in circulation for 3 years, will be replaced to chip ones from 2007
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According to Georbelidze, for the time being Azerbaijan has three banks emitter of Visa card system the IBA, Amrahbank and Technikabank, which completed the issue of chip cards. The process usually takes 3-4 months. In whole, Azerbaijan is the most progressive countries in CIS in sense of development of the plastic cards market. Especially, the IBA contributes not only the upgrade of the network of sponsorship for associate members of the payment system, but also implementation of new projects. It is the first who started the installation of information kiosks in Azerbaijan. One information kiosk has been installed under a pilot project, while by the end of the year it is planned to increase the figure to 100.
In difference to cash-vending machines, with the assistance of the kiosks it will be possible to receive pensions, pay communal services and carry out money transfer operations. The money transfers will be ipeented only by physical entities possessing bank accounts at the IBA, while the rest operations are available for all citizens.