The certification ha started in international payment system MasterCard for chip cards issue. Trend reports with reference to processing center Azerikard, International Bank of Azerbaijan, Kapital Bank, Azerigazbank, Bank Respublika and Standard Bank have already submitted their application forms.
Another payment system, Visa International, started chip certification process yet last year. Five Azeri banks-issuers of Visa cards, IBA, Bank of Azerbaijan, Amrahbank, Bank Respublika and Standard Bank, have completed certification for chip cards issue, and last two banks were authorized for chip cards issue starting July 17, 2006.
At the moment, Atrabank is going to join Visa and immediately pass chip certification. Other banks did not yet start the transfer to chip technologies
There are 50k chip cards issued in total to date. Since all the banks within said two systems shall pass to chip technologies, 26 Azeri banks will start issuing chip cards in short.
Chip cards certification in Visa is free-of charge, but in MasterCard it costs each bank $30-40k. As to the chip cad cost, Visa promotes price reduction and if 2 years back a chip card cost $9-10, today its price fell to $2.