(MENAFN- AzerNews)
By Ayya Lmahamad
A total of 25 fintech companies are providing services in the
finance market of Azerbaijan, FinTech Association of Azerbaijan
Chairman Ruslan Talibov told“Fintech-ecosystem in Azerbaijan-
today and tomorrow” event, Azernews reports.
Noting that 55.6 percent of them are stable and 44.4 percent are
still developing, he emphasized that about 20 percent of these
companies are international players.
“I believe that the adoption of a law on payment systems will
accelerate their development, expand the number of fintech players,
give access to payment tools and provide a number of other
benefits,” he said.
Ruslan Talibov also added that fintech organizations need to
create conditions for closer cooperation with banks.
Startup certificates
Addressing the event, Small and Medium Business Development
Agency Deputy Board Chairman Samir Humbatov stated that the agency
issued about 60 startup certificates over the past two years.
He underlined that it is planned to work out the issues of
financing startup projects that received these certificates.
“Some startup creators have received a certificate and,
unfortunately, don't carry out the vigorous activities expected
from them. Therefore, it's necessary to create financing and
lending tools,” he said.
Digital payments
The Central Bank is working on stimulating digital payments, the
bank's Executive Director Farid Osmanov said.
Noting that in 2021, a strategy for digital payments was
adopted, based on which work is underway to develop these types of
payments, he added that a law on payment systems is expected to be
adopted in the near future, which will accelerate the development
of electronic financial services.
“We are also working on a number of other regulations which will
facilitate the development of financial services and their
compliance with international standards,” he said.
He stated that the number of bank card payments has increased
significantly in Azerbaijan, adding that there are 13 million cards
there, of which 9 million are contactless.
“Cashless payments in the country's total turnover account for
about 41 percent, and we aim to increase the share of non-cash
payments in the total turnover,” he said.
In addition, Farid Osmanov said that the bank is also working on
a project which will help create synergy between fintech companies
and banks, and develop open banking.
Moreover, he told reporters that Azerbaijan's payment systems
will be based on a license. He noted that the relevant decision was
reflected in the bill“on payment services and systems”, which is
still under consideration by various public agencies.
“The Central Bank is working on implementing comprehensive
measures to expand non-cash payments and create a competitive
environment. Once a draft motion enters into force, the CBA will
control the activities of payment organizations, non-banking
organizations, as well as intermediary services. Such an activity
will be permitted and licensed, and these organizations will be
subject to technological safety and regulation measures,” he
said.
Global payment solutions
Visa launched Apple Pay and Google Pay cashless payment
solutions in Azerbaijan in 2019, Regional Manager in Central Asia
and Azerbaijan at Visa Nurlan Hajiyev said.
He noted that the launch of these cashless payment solutions
became possible due to the launch of tokenization.
“Visa was confident that this would contribute to the launch of
Apple Pay and Google Pay in Azerbaijan. Today a number of banks are
continuing to work on this,” he said.
The regional manager added that Visa launched the cashless
purchase of train tickets running on the Baku-Sumgait route.
“The relevant infrastructure has been installed at 14 stations
of the Absheron Circular line. It's planned to expand this
initiative to other routes,” he said.
Nurlan Hajiyev added that Visa plans to launch MTT (Mobility and
Transport Transaction) in Azerbaijan, adding that this includes the
implementation of tokenization in public transport.
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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews' staff journalist, follow her on
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