Leader in the credit card of Azerbaijan is Bolkart from Bank of Baku

The total number of active credit cards on March 1 this year reached 1.01 million units, an increase for the year twice. The share of such cards in the total number of active cards reached 17.3% (previous year 9.2%).

In January, February, the number of credit card transactions, compared with the corresponding period in 2013 increased 2.5 times to 2,484,000 and their turnover - by 66.3 % to 341 million manat.

Past two years began active development of one of the varieties of credit cards. These cards allow customers to obtain payment in installments, with the banks earning their commission by shops. Their current market is about 300-350 thousand.

The leader in this segment in Azerbaijan is Bolkart from the Bank of Baku. It accounts for more than a quarter (210,000) of the total number of credit cards and more than half taksitnyh cards. With it compete cards of Albalı (from Unibank), Worldcard (Yapı Kredi Bank), PayKart (Bank Respublika) and Aykart (DemirBank).

Experts note a number of positive and negative sides of credit cards. The positive side, the use of maps in installments include: ease of obtaining consumer credit on goods and services (not necessary every time to contact the bank and go through the procedure of registration); there is an opportunity to repay the loan installments; credit card is suitable for cash withdrawals. On the negative side can be attributed likelihood of burglary of the credit card and debit from it of payment for services that you did not use, and the problem of refund for refusal to purchase.

But the main problem is psychological in nature and it is connected with a sense of endless possibilities. In fact, you can empty your limit of 2,000 manat for 2 hours. Immediately pops up the lack of mechanisms to monitor the current creditworthiness of the customer. For example, a year ago, you identified the limit on the card for 2 000 AZN, but the last 6 months you are unemployed. That is, the credit, which was estimated in the allocation limit, you do not already possess. As a result, the bank eventually faces with increasing delinquencies and bad loans.

In international practice, there are a number of restrictive measures regulating this market segment, including the introduction of a limit on the number of active credits, limiting the maximum term of credits (today it is 12 months) and systematic reassessment of the current creditworthiness of the credit card holder. -15B-