Page 18 - bne_Tech_11_2019

Blockchain & Crypto
November 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
Azerbaijan reportedly to implement blockchain ID platform in 2020
More countries are turning to the use of block- chain technology as a platform to verify identities, and Azerbaijan is the latest to do so, Coingeek wrote on November 8.
The country is reportedly on the verge of com- pleting a blockchain-based digital identification system, which should be finished by the end of this year. Director of the information and technol- ogy department at the central bank of Azerbaijan, Farid Osmanov, was cited as saying that this will mean that the new system will be implemented some time in the first quarter of 2020.
The central bank introduced plans at the fourth International Banking Forum in which it ad- dressed its goal of instituting such a system. It would help to protect personal data transferred between credit organisations while also greatly
upping the efficiency of these procedures, the regulator said.
A central bank official was quoted by the article
as saying that the next step would be to switch
to a remote opening of accounts for all corporate businesses, individuals, and other legal entities. “Other banking services will follow, and at the final stage it is planned to automate the monitoring of funds aimed at financing terrorism and money laundering,” a representative for the central bank explained. “The direct result of all this will be the transition of the CBA to open banking.”
Azerbaijan has a programme entitled the “State Program on Expansion of Digital Payments for 2018-2020”. It brought together a number of firms and agencies to coordinate on exactly how to develop this new system.