Azerbaijan may launch buy now, pay later services from next year, Edgar Abdullayev, chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Fintech Association, or AzFina, told Report.
Abdullayev said proposals on the development of the fintech sector were regularly submitted to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan and that the regulator was working closely with the sector.
"One of the most promising areas for fintech companies now is the introduction of the buy now, pay later model. We would like such services to be launched in Azerbaijan as well," he said.
However, Abdullayev said local fintech companies were not yet fully ready for the model, as their capacity to carry out scoring and implement such services remained limited.
He said the expansion of open banking and stronger integration with state information systems would create new opportunities in this area.
"Once full integration is established with the Centralized Credit Register, MyGov, IAMAS and other electronic platforms, fintech companies will be able to start offering instant microloans and launching buy now, pay later models," Abdullayev said.
He said this could give fintech companies an additional competitive advantage over banks.
Abdullayev added that InsurTech products, meaning the joint offering of insurance and fintech services, could also support market expansion.
He said the success of all these initiatives would depend primarily on the development of an open banking ecosystem.