OREANDA-NEWS. February 15, 2011. The International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA) attaches particular importance to the business of banking cards. It is known that the development of cashless payments using plastic cards has the overall economic value, and this is one of the main directions of the IBA, reported the press-centre of IBA.

It should be noted that the IBA in 2010 issued more than 223 thousand cards, and thus made for the growth in the domestic market in this segment. At present, the number of active cards of the bank clients is around 1.8 million units, representing more than 40 percent of the country card market. In 2010, the number of card transactions for all banks amounted to 46, 4 million; 21 million of these transactions are the share of the IBA. The turnover of card transactions as compared with the previous year grew by 40 million and made \\$ 2.7 billion manats. For comparison, it should be noted that in 2002 the number of cards in the IBA was 28,000 units, and the turnover of card transactions was at a level of 71 million of U.S. dollars.

Being a member of international payment systems Visa International and MasterCard International, as well as an exclusive partner of American Express in Azerbaijan, the IBA offers a wide range of services in issuing and servicing of plastic cards of these systems. The Bank offers such kinds of bank cards, as American Express Green, American Express Gold, American Express Platinum, Visa Electron, Visa Classic, Visa Gold, Visa Platinum, Visa Infiniti, Visa Business, Visa Gold Business, Visa Virtual, Cirrus Maestro, MasterCard Standard , MasterCard Gold, MasterCard Platinum, World Signia, MasterCard Business, MasterCard Virtual. The IBA did not forget about the youth, and started issuing TeenCard plastic cards especially for them. Hundreds of young men became the holders of these cards and independently joined the bank transactions.

The availability of its own processing company allowed the bank to improve the quality of servicing its card holders and create new bank products.

The network of automated teller machines (ATM) of the International Bank of Azerbaijan covers more than 50 cities, including Baku, Nakhchivan, Sumgayit, Ganja, Shirvan, Mingachevir and others. The ATM network consists of 605 machines. In the city of Baku, at the clients’ disposal there are 65 modern units, referred to as "Information kiosks", performing all card transactions, except for withdrawals of funds.

The IBA develops its own acquiring network as well: to date more than 2,500 sales and service outlets have been attracted to servicing bank cards, and conditions for their use in large stores, famous boutiques, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, etc. have also been created.

The popularity of cards intended for settlements in the Internet system have markedly increased. It is necessary to note the rapid growth of transactions related to payment by plastic cards for utility services, mobile and fixed communication services and also for Internet provider services. The popularity of Internet Banking and Mobile Banking services is also constantly growing.

In addition to corporate cards, in the IBA it is also relevant to apply such projects as "wages card", "pension" and "social" cards. Thousands of people use the services of this system.

The IBA produces specifically for women LadiesCard plastic cards, equipped with a number of useful features. The owners of this card, having joined to a network specially created by the IBA and called LadiesClub, can receive a guaranteed discount up to 15% when paying for goods and services in shops, boutiques, restaurants, beauty salons, etc.

The owners of LadiesCard plastic cards using ATMs, the IBA-s information kiosks, and Internet Banking services within few seconds can transfer any amount of money in any currency to any plastic card or receive remittance from the plastic cards, which are open for KartTransfer service.

We are pleased to inform our customers that a new IBA self-service point recently began functioning at the following address: 28 –th May street, 20. The point is equipped with three new cash-in type ATMs, which, in addition to all the operations available in conventional ATMs, allow the bank customers depositing funds to their bank card accounts. The Bank has set a goal to bring in 2011 the number of ATMs of this type at least to 50 and maximize their functionality. In addition to ATMs, the self-service point is also equipped with an information kiosk. At first, the point will operate from 8.00 to 24.00, in the long run the transfer to the around-the-clock work is provided for. For purposes of visitors’ security the point is equipped with video- surveillance cameras and the point will also be guarded by police officers.

For quite a long time self-service points have been functioning in the shopping and entertainment center of “Park Boulevard” and in the Fountain Square.