Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31
By Eldar Janashvili - Trend:
In the first half of 2019, the volume of e-payments in Azerbaijan made through interbank payment systems amounted to 131.3 billion manats, Trend reports with reference to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).
Compared to the same period last year, this figure increased by 5.1 percent, according to the report.
Some 25.378 million e-payment transactions were carried out in Azerbaijan, which is a 41.3 percent growth over the year.
The volume of transactions conducted by the Government Payment Portal in the first half of this year amounted to 1.412 billion manats, increasing by 34 percent. Cash transactions amounted to 551 million manats, which is 3.4 times more than in the first half of 2018.
As of June 30, the number of payment cards in Azerbaijan increased by 14.7 percent, exceeding 7 million. This included 998,000 contactless payment cards, the number of which increased by 2.4 times compared to the same period in 2018. The number of contactless transactions also increased 4.6 times.
In the first half of this year, the volume of credit card transactions amounted to 9.532 billion manats, increasing by 24 percent. The share of non-cash operations in payment card transactions was 20 percent (an increase of 4 percent).
There were 2,481 ATMs in Azerbaijan as of June 30, 2018. Over the year, their number increased by 90 and amounted to 2,571. Of these, 1,373 ATMs are located in Baku and 1,198 in other cities and regions.
As many as 63,400 POS terminals were installed by banks in Azerbaijan, including 25,750 contactless POS terminals. Compared to the first half of 2018, the number of contactless POS terminals increased by 26 percent, or by 5,305.
($1= 1.7 manats on July 31)