Some 1,000 Azerpoct branches and offices to join automated system by late 2011

Roughly 1,000 branches and offices of the Azerbaijani postal operator Azerpoct will be connected to the automated corporate information system by late 2011, the Head of the postal services department of the Azerbaijani Communications and IT Ministry Novruz Mammadov told.

Mammadov said about 710 branches and subsidiaries have already been connected to the system, 120 of which are located in the capital. "Based on the company’s plans, the number of branches and subsidiaries connected to the system will reach 800 units by Oct. 1.

This figure is expected to reach 1,000 by late 2011", he said. Some 400 of the total number of branches and subsidiaries connected to the system have already received permission by the CBA to provide financial services to the public.

Azerpocht started providing financial services to the population in mid-2010. Today, the operator is allowed to provide five of the seven existing financial services. These include opening and managing accounts, money transfers, issuance of debit card transactions for buying and selling currencies in the order book, and collecting cash and other valuable means.

The provision of two more additional services - deposits and credit cards - will be revised in the future. Banking services are provided through a corporate automated information system.

Azerpoct's entry into the Azerbaijani banking market will seriously compete with the banking market players. The Azerbaijani banking market has 44 banks; the total number of branches is more than 500, while the number of Azerpoct's post offices exceeds 1,600 branches.

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