Turan, Azerbaijan
Aug 14 2008
Western Union, MoneyGram resume operations in Azerbaijan
The operations of international payment systems Western Union and
MoneyGram will be resumed on the territory of Azerbaijan starting from
14 August after two weeks of restriction imposed by the National Bank
of Azerbaijan [NBA].
NBA has said that this has become possible upon fulfilment of the
central bank’s requirement by these systems to cease cooperation with
illegal agencies on the occupied territory of Azerbaijan (Nagornyy
Karabakh).
Senior officials of these systems, in particular vice president of
Western Union, Jonathan Knaus, who visited Baku last week pledged not
to allow such actions in future and function in the country in
accordance with legislation and international principles.
Earlier, upon NBA’s notification, money transfer systems such as
Contact, Gold Crown-money transfer, Migom, Privat Money and Lider have
ceased their operations in Nagornyy Karabakh.
Currently, the operations of Russian money transfer system UNIStream
have been restricted in Azerbaijan. Its main founder is an Armenian
national – Garik Zakaryan. UNIStream’s only partner in the country was
Gancabank.