OREANDA-NEWS. February 10, 2009. Altyn Asyr payment system operating at the Processing Centre of the Central Bank of Turkmenistan provides plastic cards holders with an access to a wide spectrum of modern services. Cash dispensers installed at the Central Bank, the Bank of Foreign Economic Relations and the commercial banks Daykhanbank, Khalkbank and Turkmenistan will allow customers a secure method of making cashless purchases for communication services, paying on accounts for electric power and public utilities. The services include credit operations and deposits of money, electronic fund transfers between plastic cards holders of other payment systems.

Also cash dispensers allow using paper money of different denomination and currency. The menu in Turkmen, Russian and English makes them easy and convenient to use. New cash dispensers are fitted with the additional security devices preventing from effecting the unauthorized operations with client debit cards and particularly using counterfeit cards.

As is known improvements of the banking system is a priority trend in the economic reform aimed at transiting to market economy and further integrating into the global economic system. According to the Central Bank, the measures to modernize and fit out the banking agencies with advanced technologies were taken. To fulfill the designated tasks the project on technology modernization of the Processing Centre was implemented. This organization department of the Central Bank is responsible for maintaining informational and technical coordination among participants in payment systems and ensures the processing of plastic card operations in the bank. Its major objective is to establish the stable and secure cashless payment system with the use of plastic cards in the territory of the country. Altyn Asyr uniform payment system was created for this purpose.

Broadening the range of services rendered by Altyn Asyr payment system provides for replacing magnetic stripe cards with smart cards. A smart card, chip card is in any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data. The card may embed a hologram to avoid counterfeiting. Using smartcards also is a form of strong security authentication for single sign-on within large companies and organizations. Smart cards provide a means of effecting business transactions in a flexible, secure, standard way with minimal human intervention. Smart cards are much more durable than magnetic ones and have the higher level of protection from an unauthorized access. The work is carried on to connect the main commercial banks of Ashgabat to the Processing Centre that allow them use Altyn Asyr payment system and attract more clients.

Thus, these measures taken to extend the cashless payment system throughout Turkmenistan will simplify payments process and facilitate the integration of the domestic economy into a global cashless payment system.