The central banks of Iran and Azerbaijan on Sunday agreed to connect the two countries’ payment networks to ease money transactions for tourists and traders.
Valiollah Seif, Central Bank of Iran’s governor, and his Azeri counterpart Elman Rustamov, signed a memorandum of understanding on the sidelines of President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Azerbaijan, mainly to prepare the grounds for enhancing banking ties between the two countries, CBI’s website reported.
President Rouhani arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday to attend trilateral talks with Moscow and the host country, mainly focusing on a massive project to build the International North–South Transport Corridor.
The two banks will start discussing technical issues for linking their payment networks in two weeks.
The CBI and CBA also agreed to form a joint banking committee to improve the future of Iran-Azerbaijan banking relations and establish a joint account to ease bilateral trade.
Azerbaijan and Iran have set a goal to quadruple their trade volume to $2 billion.
According to the agreement, the two central banks will start reviewing proposals for the establishment of bank branches in both countries and provide technical help in terms of meeting international banking standards.
Currently, Bank Melli Iran has a branch in the neighboring country that restarted operations following the lifting of sanctions in January. Today, there are 43 banks operating in Azerbaijan and 28 banks in Iran.
The two countries are also planning to launch the Iran-Azerbaijan joint bank next year.
