BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 22
By Zeyni Jafarov – Trend:
One of the most important trends in the payment industry for Visa is projects aimed at developing the use of contactless payments, Kristina Dorosh, Visa's Regional Manager for the Caucasus region, told Trend.
According to her, during the coronavirus crisis, contactless payments have become especially relevant, since this technology allows speeding up the payment process.
The consumer simply has to attach the card, without having to swipe it in the payment terminal or hand it over to the cashier, which is important in a pandemic condition, as it minimizes physical interaction, said the VISA regional manager.
“At the moment, more than 60 percent of transactions in physical POS terminals (face-to-face) in Azerbaijan are already made using contactless payment instruments. In general, applications to a non-cash payment method in Azerbaijan have quadrupled from March to November 2020,” said Dorosh.
“Realizing how popular contactless payments are in the realities of 2020, in April in all countries of our region we announced an increase in the limits for contactless transactions, which don’t require cardholder authentication by entering a PIN code. For Azerbaijan, this limit has been increased from 50 to 80 manat ($29.4 to $47),” the regional manager said.
This step facilitates convenient daily transactions and allows customers to pay for larger purchases using a non-cash method, she said.
According to Christina Dorosh, in order to ensure further growth, it is necessary to expand the channels for accepting non-cash payments, and the main direction for Visa is transport.
“So, in September 2020, in partnership with Azerbaijan Railways CJSC, the Central Bank and the International Bank of Azerbaijan, testing of the payment system using bank cards and payment rings was launched at several stations of the Absheron ring railway, and in November, together with Pasha Bank OJSC, the first in Azerbaijan solution for contactless fare payment in public transport in Sumgayit city was launched,” the manager noted.
“All our payment technologies and products, marketing and educational initiatives are aimed at increasing the level of consumers' knowledge about the advantages and possibilities of non-cash payments and, as a result, stimulating their growth,” Dorosh added.
(1 USD = 1.7 AZN on Dec. 22)