Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.5
By Zulfiyya Gurbanova - Trend:
The number of payment cards in Azerbaijan has increased by 2.7 percent since early 2014 and hit 5.827 million units as of July 2014, according to the statistics report of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.
Their number increased by 8.4 percent compared to January-July 2013.
Some 4.670 million units of the total number of cards were debit cards, in particular, 2.559 million - social cards, 1.398 million - salary cards, 713,000 - other debit cards. The number of credit cards was 1.158 million units.
The total turnover on payment cards via ATMs and POS-terminals amounted to 6.724 billion AZN and the total number of transactions to 44.826 million units in January-July, according to the report.
The number of transactions on debit cards equaled 35.285 million units totaling 5.423 billion AZN.
Of the total number of transactions, around 28.446 million transactions amounting to 4.901 billion AZN were implemented on debit cards via ATMs within the country, and around 2.079 million transactions amounting to 341 million AZN via POS-terminals.
Some 9.541 million transactions worth of 1.3 billion AZN were made on credit cards in January-July 2014.
As many as 2.938 million transactions worth 681million AZN, of the total number of transactions on credit cards, were implemented via ATMs and there were 4.3 million transactions worth of 289 million AZN via POS-terminals.
As of August 1, 2014, around 2,493 ATMs operated in the country of which 1,399 are located in Baku and 1,094 in other cities and regions of the country. Their total number increased by 125 units or 5.3 percent per year (compared to early August 2013).
The number of POS-terminals amounted to 53,988 units of which 37,189 are installed in Baku and 16,799 units in other cities and regions as of August 1, 2014.
The number of POS-terminals increased by 17,600 units or 48.4 percent compared to January-July 2013.
The official exchange rate on Sept.5 is 0.7843 AZN/USD.