Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 2
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s central bank plans to link the Iranian credit cards to the banking network of the neighbouring countries.
Talks are underway to connect the domestic credit cards with banks of the neighbouring countries, Iran's Central Bank Chief Valiollah Seif said, Fars news agency reported Oct. 2.
Iran introduced credit cards for the first time on Sept. 25.
The cards are offered with limits of approximately 3,000, 10,000 and 15,000 dollars and can be used for purchases in shops or online.
Seif further said that positive talks have been held with Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Iraq so far in this regard.
Last August Iran and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in banking sector. Under the terms of the MoU the banking card systems of Iran and Azerbaijan will be switched therefore the citizens from the two countries can use their banking cards in Iran and Azerbaijan.
While commenting about bringing the international banking cards into Iran, Seif said that the central bank has held fruitful negotiations with Japan, China and Russia in this field, adding that the talks will be concluded soon.
Last March, it was announced that the Central Bank of Iran adopted a policy of holding regular talks with Visa and MasterCard to have their services in the country.
Iranian officials had already said the country is preparing a ground for the people to use credit cards provided by Asian banks until the restrictions for using the international electronic payment operators, like Visa and MasterCard, are removed.
Earlier, in February, iyzico – a Turkish credit card company – signed a deal with Iran enabling its customers to process transactions from some 230 million payment cards, which until recently were not connected to any financial system outside Iran.