Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 6 / Trend H.Valiyev /
The Azerbaijani postal operator will soon begin providing money transfer services under the STEFI (Secured Transfer of Electronic Financial Information) system with Ukraine, head of the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry's Postal Services Department and Deputy Chairman of the postal services of the Regional Commonwealth of Communications (RCC), Novruz Mammadov told Trend on Thursday.
According to him, the system is in test mode, which is expected to be completed shortly, after which it will launch a pilot operation.
"The work to implement the money transfers system with Ukraine was to be completed in Dec. 2010, but deadlines were extended for technical reasons. After putting the system in trial operation, the money transfer services will be introduced also in the direction of Russia, Belarus and other countries," Mammadov said.
The Universal Postal Union is in talks regarding the integration of the EUROGIRO system with the international money transfers, STEFI. If an agreement is signed on this matter, then Azerbaijan, as a full member of the STEFI, will automatically receive access to the EUROGIRO system, Mammadov had said earlier.
The EUROGIRO system is a network through which banks, postal banks and the postal administration are served. Currently, 48 countries participate in this system, providing postal services on money transfers at a high level. EUROGIRO works closely with the Universal Postal Union, the Federal Reserve System, which includes U.S. banks working with VISA Electron, Western Union, Cirrus, Pay Pal, Master Card, etc.
Connecting to the EUROGIRO system of remittances is, at present, commercially disadvantageous for Azerbaijan. First, it is necessary to become a member of this organization and pay membership dues to connect to the EUROGIRO system. Secondly, Azerbaijan holds the vast majority of remittances directly with the countries of post-Soviet space, whereas the volume of remittances with the European countries are negligible.