OREANDA-NEWS. June 03, 2011. Visa and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) are strengthening joint activities on development of e-payments and announcing application of a new landmark for the banking industry – Az NNSS system to move e-banking market of Azerbaijan to a new solid development phase, reported the press-centre of CBA.

Visa together with the partners from the CBA and representatives of state authorities, banking society and economic entities discussed opportunities and prospects of expanding card acceptance network at the second joint round table dedicated to trade acquiring in Azerbaijan.

According to Nielsen research commissioned by Visa on Overcoming Barriers for Future Development of Trade Acquiring, the government and banks need to take certain measures for future development of trade acquiring. Thus, there is a need for taxation incentives for small businesses to stimulate merchants to adopt cashless payments and provide transparency in trade turnover. On the other hand, consumers should be educated that cards are a reliable payment toll for goods and services and a more convenient alternative to cash.

According to Alim Guliyev, the First Deputy of the CBA Governor, the country leadership is also focused on expansion of cashless payments. The Head of the State commissioned to bring turnover on cashless payments to the level of developed countries within the shortest period of time and provide wide use of cards in his speech at the meeting held at the Cabinet of Ministers dedicated to the results of the year. Under decrees of the President, administrative fines and penalties regarding violation of traffic codes as well as all tax payments are to be paid solely via banks or plastic cards.

Key priority targets of the CBA are to more actively involve every merchant and broad population to e-payment services, increase access of all legal and natural persons to financial services in a unified e-payment environment irrespective territorial belonging, shape population’s high payment culture, as well as integrate public and other structures to e-payment systems. These priorities shall be addressed in a special State Program covering complex of measures developed by the CBA on improvement and development of up-to-date e-payment services.

The CBA, being the financial institution responsible for organisation and development of settlements in the country, has been providing various measures on launch of e-payment systems and increase of the share of cashless settlements in recent years. The CBA has always been focused on development of e-payments in the country: “We think that, the Central Bank, relevant public structures, banks and international card organisations should combine efforts on launch of “cashless society” in the country. We have already provided a number of significant projects on development of card acceptance infrastructure. Application of AzNNSS system in the country is a crucial strategic solution to create favorable conditions for development of cashless payments in the country and we are very proud to support this initiative as a settlement agent. Development of e-payment services should be accompanied with propaganda among the population and development of e-commerce,” Guliyev said.

Visa and the CBA introduced Az NNSS – innovative processing solution enabling interbank settlements in the national currency – manat on Visa payment cards along with discussions on further development of e-payments in Azerbaijan. The CBA shall undertake the role of a settlement agent among Visa member banks.

AzNNSS system application is a vital phase in development of retail cashless payments market in Azerbaijan. Thus, interbank card settlements in manat shall facilitate to ease settlement procedures and internal use of card payments through cost reduction.

“Visa admits that every country has a unique geographical, cultural, financial system and overall economy. That’s why the key priority for Visa is to underpin development of payment card business of our partner banks when finding an individual solution tailored to the requirements and goals of banking society of every country,” Steven Parker, General Director of Visa in Russia, CIS and SEE countries said. “Experience of Visa in other countries displays that, application of the systems like AZ NNSS facilitate expansion of Visa cards acceptance network and overall development of cashless payments. We appreciate our cooperation with the CBA on development of e-payment tools that are more convenient, reliable and safer than cash payments.”

“The NNSS applied in a most countries helps develop card business of banks, i.e. payments made in the national currency – manat enable banks to reduce their operational expenses. Moreover, NNSS is a favorable solution enabling to adapt to any changes on issue and acceptance of Visa cards in a specific market. That’s why, AzNSSS helps expand acceptance of payment cards in merchants not only to new regoins, but also to new segments of the market,” Alexander Kalita, Area Manager Visa, CIS added. According to him, all Visa partner banks in Azerbaijan are integrated to this service.

Launch and application of the projects like AzNNSS are done at no cost for banks. NNSS has been created on the basis of VisaNet of Visa global processing center incorporating over 15,700 financial institutions from 200 countries with the capacity of 20,000 transactions per second. AzNNSS tailored to the requirements of the Azerbaijani banking market is supported by Visa and provides the banks integrated to the system with advantages like technical maintenance, risk management, disputes solving that they obtain when processing international transactions.