Today.Az » Business » Azerbaijani banks and foreign bank branches to issue electronic money
21 August 2013 [13:24] - Today.Az
Source: /AzerNews/
Azerbaijani banks and local branches of foreign banks will be able to issue electronic money, according to the draft law "On payment services", published on the official website of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).
According to the bill, legal entities that hold a license for providing postal and financial services, local organizations operating in the field of electronic money as well as local branches of foreign organizations in the electronic money market will enjoy the same right.
The draft law says that the central bank reserves the right to introduce restrictions to the volume of emissions of electronic money of the payment organization in order to ensure its stable activity.
Furthermore, the draft law envisages legal framework for opening branches and representations of foreign payment organizations in Azerbaijan.
The foreign payment organizations as well as organizations operating in the field of electronic money need CBA licenses to open their branches in Azerbaijan.
According to the document, the activity of payment organizations as well as organizations whose work is related to the issuance of electronic money will be possible if a general or a special license has been granted.
The authorized capital of a local branch of the foreign payment organization must exceed the minimal threshold set by the central bank, the draft law says.
Moreover, the owners of a considerable share in these organizations as well as heads of their executive bodies and persons overseeing the management of payment services must comply with the conditions set forth by the central bank.
The companies that applied for a license should guarantee compliance with measures for ensuring security of funds of consumers to the requirements cited in the draft law.
If the organization that applied for obtaining a general license is not completely ready to ensure the security of funds of customers in all types of payment services, the central bank will provide this organization with a special license for providing payment services separately, according to the draft law.
Review of applications for obtaining licenses and passage of a relevant decision is to take 90 days.
The mentioned bill also outlines the obligations of payment organizations in ensuring the security of customers' funds.
The requests of creditors of payment organizations, including requests made during the bankruptcy of an organization, should not apply to the funds of customers of the payment organizations, the draft law said.
According to the document, the operator of the payment service is to inform the customer about the requested data for provision of payments (or a unique identification code), the maximum term of rendering the services, the cost of the provided services, the money exchange rate and other aspects before carrying out transactions.
Allocation of loans
The draft law also says that the payment organizations of Azerbaijan will be able to provide loans.
Besides a list of provided services, the payment organizations will conduct other auxiliary operations, such as money exchange, storage of valuables as well as storage of data and its processing.
The payment organizations will allocate loans to customers under the following conditions: the loan is of auxiliary nature and is allocated for providing payment transactions; it should not be allocated at the expense of funds received or reserved for the implementation of payment operations; the loan is allocated for a term of no longer than 12 months; the volume of the loan allocated by payment organizations at the expense of domestic funds must be in the proportionality stipulated by relevant legal acts of the central bank.
The relations between the payment organization and the customer and the allocated loans are regulated by the law "On protection of the rights of consumers".
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