(
MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 21. Visa is actively
working on the next stage of development of the international
payments system in Azerbaijan, Cristina Doros, Vice President and
Regional Manager for Visa in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, told
Trend in an
exclusive interview.
"The B2B Connect project has become significant for the country
as it was the first launch in the regions of Central and Eastern
Europe, Middle East and Africa. The experience of Kapital Bank,
which launched the product first, turned out to be very interesting
for the rest of the participants of the banking system in
Azerbaijan. We have seven banks in Azerbaijan alone that have
launched this platform, and more banks are working on it. Besides
the existing payment solutions, we are actively working on the next
stage of development of the international payment system," she
said.
According to Christina Doros, Visa has already implemented the
first part - introducing the B2B Connect platform, which serves
payments for legal entities, mainly for medium and large
companies.
"As a rule, companies make these payments for relatively large
amounts. However, we understand that there is a huge need for
international payments not only for legal entities but also for
individuals. Individuals can also transfer money to friends,
colleagues, acquaintances, children, and family abroad, as well as
do business," she emphasized.
Cristina Doros also noted that to make the solution for
cross-border transfers comprehensive and complete, Visa is working
on the implementation of the Visa Direct to Account (VDA)
solution.
"This is an opportunity to transfer funds to accounts abroad,
even not necessarily to a card, but just to accounts. Visa provides
a convenient, secure, and fast solution for almost any purpose of
transferring money abroad. There is B2B Connect for legal entities,
and for those who transfer from card to card, there is a Visa
Direct platform, which allows you to make transfers to the card
number. The third direction is transfer from card to accounts. The
fourth direction - from cards to wallets - is also in development.
All these services together create a full-fledged platform of
international transfers, satisfying all needs," she concluded.
According to Cristina Doros, Visa's relations with Azerbaijani
banks are strengthening and expanding.
"Of course, banks are our main partners in the development and
implementation of innovative solutions. We cooperate with all banks
in Azerbaijan and we are very happy that year by year this
cooperation only strengthens and expands. Earlier, perhaps, we
focused on narrower areas - cards, card products, technologies -
but now Visa cooperates with banks much wider, in different areas.
This includes marketing, consulting services, and what we call
"managed services" - work that we do practically on behalf of the
bank. We develop a project together, and then the Visa team
implements a certain part of the work for a particular partner. The
cooperation will only expand, and we are sincerely happy about it,"
she said.
Cristina Doros also noted that in 2013-2014 Visa first
implemented contactless payments in the country.
"During those years it concerned acquiring, and then it expanded
to issuing. Now the terminals can accept contactless payments and
in turn, cards can also be used to pay contactless. Later, in 2019,
we jointly with the International Bank of Azerbaijan for the first
time introduced tokenization technology - Visa Token Service. This led to the
appearance of something we call a banking or issuer wallet. Thus,
for the first time in Azerbaijan, it was possible to link a card to
a mobile application on a smartphone and pay for purchases with it.
Kapital Bank later joined this service, followed by other banks.
Tokenization created the foundation for the emergence of Apple Pay
and Google Pay in the country, which works on its basis. These
technologies are now widely used in Azerbaijan and are becoming
more and more popular because it has become faster, more
convenient, and safer to pay for purchases with them. At present it
is possible to link Visa card to Apple Pay in 14 banks, and Google
Pay - in 15 banks," she said.
According to Cristina Doros, another interesting area of
cooperation is so-called 'non-card' payments.
"I am truly proud that Azerbaijan Kapital Bank has become the
first bank in the vast region of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle
East, and Africa, comprising 88 countries, to implement B2B
Connect. This is a non-card solution that allows companies serviced
by the bank and engaged in active export-import activities to make
international cross-border payments conveniently, securely, and in
a controlled manner. Those who work in this field know how
difficult it can sometimes be to track down which correspondent
bank your payment is with. B2B Connect allows the sender to always
know where his money is. This solution is now implemented in seven
banks in Azerbaijan," she said.
Continuing the theme of cooperation with banks, the Vice
President noted several socially significant projects.
"For example, transportation solutions, such as the possibility
to pay for transportation fares contactless with a regular bank
card, without the need to purchase additional transportation cards
and replenish them. We have implemented a contactless fare payment
system on the Baku-Sumgayit branch line in partnership with the
Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), the International Bank of
Azerbaijan (ABB), and Azerbaijan Railways. Validators (terminals
for accepting card payments) have been installed at 14 stations.
Now it is possible to pay fares by contactless card when traveling
on the Baku-Sumgayit ring and back. We see how people who may not
have previously used cards for payment and preferred cash, after
the first attempt to pay for transportation by card understand how
easy it is, and discover the world of digital payments," she
commented.
Cristina Doros also emphasized that many passengers then start
using digital payment means in other areas of life, for example, in
supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies, and so on.
"Thus, transportation is becoming a significant area of digital
payments development, and we are sincerely proud of the work done.
We introduced a new technology of transportation payments in our
region, namely in Baku, on the railroads. We call it MTT - Mobility
& Transit Transaction. Now we have introduced this system on the
railroads, but our goal is to continue integrating different modes
of transportation. The technology allows us to combine [subway,
bus, and rail] payments for the whole day into one transaction,
taking into account the fares of each mode of transportation and
their fare schedules. It works efficiently. Different fares depend
on zones and also on your status - whether you are a pensioner, a
student, or a schoolchild. The system can account for all these
factors. And this has also been introduced in Baku and our region,"
she concluded.
According to Doros, the technology rolled out by Visa on railway
routes is just the beginning in terms of transportation system
development.
"We are open to discussing the possibilities of implementing
contactless payment on the Baku metro, ground transportation, and
so on. Our Mobility & Transit Transaction (MTT) technology allows
consolidating all payments in public transportation," she said.
"This is a significant prospect - for example, parking payment can
also be integrated here. These issues are part of the process aimed
at developing a smart city."
Doros said that the regions of Central Asia and Azerbaijan are
in the range of champions in terms of innovation development.
The Vice President also mentioned that the Visa team is actively
working to ensure the continuous advancement of digital payments,
fostering innovation and technology in both Central Asia and
Azerbaijan.
"Digitalization development varies across countries in our
region due to diverse factors. Nevertheless, our region is rightly
acknowledged as a leader in innovation and development. Virtually
every payment technology is present in Central Asia and Azerbaijan.
A notable example is the introduction of the Request to Pay service
in Kazakhstan using Visa Direct. This marked the world's first
implementation of such a service, enabling users to request money
transfers from other bank clients or split bills," she said.
"As an illustration, I could generate a request through the
mobile application, prompting you with a message like, 'Cristina is
requesting a $10 transfer. Confirm: Yes or No?' Upon selecting
'Yes, transfer,' a Visa Direct-based transaction is initiated,
transferring the money from your account to mine," Doros added.
According to her perspective, this represents a fascinating
application of technology, particularly in the context of
individual transfers, such as dividing shared expenses among
friends. The speaker also highlights that the company provides
solutions tailored for private entrepreneurs.
"Taking a larger view of this technology, its applicability can
extend to the customer-to-business (C2B) model. This allows for the
unrestricted development of micro- and nano-companies. This
includes people who sell material, blog, offer things on social
media, or run other small businesses. Entrepreneurs with a Visa
Business card can now take digital payments, expanding the existing
acceptance channels via POS terminals. The Visa Business card
serves as a payment acceptance point without the use of any
additional equipment. This provides tremendous prospects for the
numerous individuals currently creating their small enterprises,
allowing them to do so digitally," added Visa VP.
Doros mentioned that the National Bank of Kazakhstan is actively
working on the introduction of digital currency (digital
tenge).
"In partnership with the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the
National Payment Corporation, and three leading banks in the
country, we have issued the world's first Visa cards linked to the
digital tenge. There are cash and non-cash payments, and now there
is a third form of currency called CBDC (Central Bank Digital
Currency). The world's first CBDC-linked card was introduced by us
in Kazakhstan," she explained.
According to Doros, Visa actively collaborates with various
stakeholders in the market, including trade and service
enterprises, fintech companies, and regulators.
"Partnership with all market participants, based on innovation
and technology, enables us to ease the lives of people who use
payment services regularly, giving them more financial options.
This contributes to enhancing prosperity since the capacity to use
financial instruments allows for more effective administration of
small firms, boosts family income, and supports general economic
development," she added.
According to the VP, regarding the overall improvement of
transport systems, it's worth emphasizing with pride that Visa
occupies a significant global position in the evolution of payment
solutions for transportation.
"Residents in numerous cities worldwide have already embraced
the convenience, speed, and security of cashless payments in
transportation, facilitated by Visa technologies. This knowledge,
experience, and technology are consistently applied in Central Asia
and other regions where we operate. For instance, in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan, we've enabled contactless payment across all modes of
public transportation, with validators at every metro station.
Similarly, we introduced contactless payment on public
transportation in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In Azerbaijan, residents can
use contactless cards for payments on the Baku-Sumgayit ring train
route. Additionally, contactless payment is available in Almaty's
metro and buses across seven other cities in Kazakhstan," she
said.
"In the city of Tbilisi, Georgia, we have implemented
contactless payment options for both metro and surface-level public
transportation. Moreover, in six additional cities across Georgia,
this convenience is available for bus passengers. Consequently,
nearly all the capitals in the countries where we operate,
including Ukraine's Kyiv, Moldova's Chisinau, and Balarus' Minsk,
as well as over 50 smaller cities, are now equipped with the
capability for contactless payments. We remain prepared to further
introduce these technologies in Baku," said Visa VP.
According to her, there is currently an intriguing phenomenon in
the realm of payment innovations, and each of us is actively
engaged in it.
"Payment innovations had their origins in the US, notably with
the founding of Visa 65 years ago. It can be asserted that the
company was the world's pioneering fintech entity to seamlessly
integrate financial information and technology. Presently, we
observe an increasing number of payment innovations emerging in our
region. The eagerness of banks to adopt innovative technologies and
the willingness of the population to embrace them both play pivotal
roles in this development," she added.
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