PARIS, France, July 6. Visa expects wider
adoption of new payment technologies in Azerbaijan.
Shahebaz Khan, Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial and
Money Movement Solutions for Central Europe, Middle East, and
Africa (CEMEA) at Visa, said in an exclusive interview with Trend
on the sidelines of the Visa payment Forum Media Day in Paris that
Visa is trying to reimagine and reinvent how businesses accept
payments and how they make payments.
“When we think about how we want to innovate that experience, we
try to find out what is the easiest way for somebody to onboard
these experiences. We call it consumerization of
business-to-business (B2B) payments. Consumers are very comfortable
using their phones for digital payment services, doing their online
banking using a mobile banking app. Especially in markets like
Azerbaijan, consumers are also very comfortable making peer-to-peer
(P2P) payments as the infrastructure is very well established. We
want to bring the same consumer experiences to B2B payments. The
way we are doing it on the acceptance side is through Tap to Phone,
which allows consumers to make payments using their phones. Now, as
a merchant, you can also use your phone as an acceptance device.
This used to be a major hurdle, as many merchants needed to obtain
a point-of-sale device. But now, with just a phone, merchants can
accept payments directly on their devices,” he said.
Shahebaz Khan noted that instead of waiting for a bank to
onboard, clients can simply download the app and enroll in Visa
Accept, a platform that enables to accept payments either
face-to-face or by sending a payment link for peer-to-peer (P2P) or
person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions.
“On the payment side, we offer our commercial card solutions,
which help businesses distinguish between consumer and commercial
payments. They also provide detailed payment data, allowing
businesses to track receivables and payables and better manage
their cash flow. We also have Visa Direct, which is already well
established in Azerbaijan and across the CIS region. With Visa
Direct, businesses can make payments directly to staff, employees,
or content creators into their bank accounts, cards, or digital
wallets, which are widely used in our markets. Visa Direct provides
access to 12 billion endpoints, enabling businesses to make B2B
payments. In this way, we’re addressing both sides of the equation,
making it much simpler for businesses to adopt innovative ways of
both receiving and making payments,” said Visa’s senior
vice-president.
He pointed out that the overview of the average growth of Tap to
Phone across CEMEA markets shows around 200% growth across the
board.
“Some markets are growing faster because they launched earlier,
while others entered the market later and have been a bit slower to
gain traction. However, the encouraging news for us is that we’re
seeing tremendous growth everywhere. In some previously
underpenetrated markets, growth has been even stronger. Azerbaijan
was already penetrated with digital payments. Even so, when we
introduce a product that is so important and powerful, and we see
this kind of uptake across the market, it’s a very encouraging sign
for us. Our focus is on educating and onboarding as many acquirers
as possible so they can offer this solution to their clients and
merchants. We work very closely with them to ensure that everything
we build on the backend can be easily integrated. We provide
Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Application Programming
Interface (APIs) that allow them to onboard into their online
experience as quickly as possible. We’re working closely with our
partners to ensure these products are distributed as effectively as
possible,” added Shahebaz Khan.
He believes digital payments are becoming increasingly important
as AI lowers barriers to entrepreneurship.
“Today, you often hear that, with the advent of AI, you can
start a business with just a laptop from anywhere in the world. For
innovators looking to launch a business—whether they’re content
creators, contractors, AI experts, or entrepreneurs building
partnerships—digital payments can make a significant difference. We
believe that when businesses adopt digital payments, they see
higher customer traffic and gain access to a much broader customer
base. They’re able to expand beyond their local networks and reach
customers globally.
Since it’s now much easier to start a business, we also want it
to be just as easy to adopt the payment solutions that help those
businesses grow. That’s where our focus is—to make onboarding
digital payments as user-friendly as possible. I think all the
solutions I mentioned earlier—such as lower-cost payment acceptance
through Tap to Phone and Visa Accept—are particularly relevant to
our CEMEA markets. As you’ve probably seen from the statistics,
there are still around 90 million small businesses and merchants
that do not yet accept digital payments. These solutions are
designed to make it as simple and convenient as possible for them
to onboard themselves,” said Shahebaz Khan.
He went on to add that a similar trend is with Visa Direct.
“The CIS is one of the regions where adoption has been
particularly strong. In many markets, we enable domestic
peer-to-peer (P2P) payments tailored to local needs. We’ve also
developed market-specific use cases. For example, in Ukraine,
Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, we’ve introduced faster refunds,
allowing customers who make a payment through Visa Direct rails to
receive an instant refund directly to their card. This creates a
unique and seamless customer experience. Whenever we enter a
market, we first assess its specific needs. We then use platforms
such as Visa Direct and Visa Accept to develop tailored payment
experiences that meet the expectations of both consumers and
merchants. We’ve spent many years building our global card payment
network, and now we’re investing the same level of thought and
effort into building the most powerful remittance platform we can.
Visa Direct connects nearly 12.5 billion endpoints across bank
accounts, cards, and digital wallets. It supports transactions in
150 currencies across 195 markets, making it a highly scalable,
secure, and trusted platform, built on the same principles as our
payment network. With Visa Direct, customers and businesses can
make seamless cross-border payments with the transparency, speed,
and reliability they expect from Visa. Whether you’re an individual
or a business, Visa Direct enables you to make payments quickly and
securely to clients, suppliers, and other recipients,” Visa’s
senior vice-president explained.
When it comes to B2B payments in Azerbaijan specifically, he
believes the capabilities we’ve introduced through Tap to Phone
will see much wider adoption.
“We also expect more merchants to join the Visa Accept program
through their issuing banks. As these solutions become more widely
available—whether it’s accepting payments through Tap to Phone or
making payments via Visa Direct—we expect strong uptake from both
consumers and merchants. These technologies will make it much
easier for businesses to accept and make digital payments. We have
leading-edge cybersecurity practices in place, and we work
continuously to ensure our payment network remains resilient. We
invest significant time, effort, and resources to keep the network
secure. As AI becomes more widespread, we’re also using AI
ourselves to strengthen our defenses against potential cyber
threats. It’s extremely important for us to ensure our network
remains secure and reliable, and we continue to invest heavily to
achieve that.
We will continue working with our partners across the region to
roll out the new capabilities we’re developing. Our goal is to
understand the nuances of each local market, adapt our products
accordingly, and work hand in hand with our partners to ensure
these solutions truly meet the needs of those markets. As market
needs evolve, we’ll continue collaborating closely with our
partners to make any necessary adjustments and ensure our products
remain relevant and effective,” Shahebaz Khan concluded.
