MasterCard may introduce alternative system to POS-terminals in Azerbaijan

The proportion of cash turnover in Azerbaijan is declining every day, as the use of plastic cards is growing, Hakan Tatlici, Business Development Director at MasterCard, told Report.

However, according to him, the purchase and use of POS-terminals is an extra cost for entrepreneurs: "It is not profitable for banks to give out POS-terminals to businessmen for free. Therefore, MasterCard has studied alternative methods of making payments. Android mobile devices (IOS is not supported) can be used to pay for contactless cards using NFC, which will eliminate the need for POS terminals."

“The company where a citizen works downloads mobile application working in Android regime to their phone. Having registered at bank, they obtain POS-ID. So the payment is done from phone to phone, not from card to card. We called this system ‘Tap on Phone’. Now the Russian Sberbank and Turkish ENGBank are testing this project. About 200 small enterprises in Turkey joined the project. The results are successful, but there is a limit on the amount of the payment. It is necessary to enter a password for payments that exceeds a certain amount (50 manat in Azerbaijan), "he added.

"Now many banks want to use Tap on Phone. But its widespread implementation is impossible until the rules are defined. I believe that we will be able to apply these solutions in Azerbaijan next year," Tatlichi said.