BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 19.
Some time ago, a notification was sent to bank customers in
Azerbaijan regarding potential temporary difficulties when making
payments with Mastercard cards via Apple Pay and Google Pay. The
notification said that Mastercard was conducting technical work to
upgrade its card systems, and that any resulting issues could
persist for 20–25 days.


In response to an inquiry from Trend regarding this matter, Mastercard
clarified that the published information did not reflect any actual
technical changes, and that the notice in question has since been
retracted.


"Mastercard payment services continue to operate as usual.
Cardholders can continue to use their cards, including for payments
made via mobile wallets, just as they did before, without needing
to take any additional steps," the company stated.


Thus, according to Mastercard’s statement, cardholders can
continue to make payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay as they
normally would.


The volume of transactions using Mastercard payment cards in
Azerbaijan exceeded 4 billion manat ($2.3 billion).


According to a statistical bulletin from the Central Bank of
Azerbaijan (CBA), as of the end of August of this year, over 76.6
million transactions totaling 4.33 billion manat ($2.5 billion)
were processed using Mastercard cards issued by the country’s
resident financial institutions (including payment cards issued by
statistical units).


Compared to August of last year, the number of transactions
increased by 2.21 million (3%), while their total value decreased
by 432 million manat or $254.2 million (9.1%).







The number of transactions using Mastercard cards issued by
non-resident financial institutions totaled 771,000, with a
transaction volume of 68.2 million manat ($40.1 million).


Compared to August of last year, the number of such transactions
increased by more than 329,600, or 74.7%, and the volume grew by
more than 22,200 manat ($13,064), or 48.3%.


The total number of payment cards issued by banks and Azerpost
LLC in Azerbaijan exceeded 22.97 million as of the end of August
2026, increasing by 189,000 units. Compared to the same period last
year, the number of payment cards in circulation increased by 8.7%.
The number of debit cards increased by 10.2%, while the number of
credit cards decreased by 4.3%. Since the beginning of the year,
the volume of domestic cashless transactions has risen by 13.2%
compared to the same period last year.


The growth in non-cash payments continued. In August 2026, the
volume of domestic non-cash transactions made via payment cards
totaled almost 8.9 billion manat ($5.1 billion). Of this amount,
7.6 billion manat ($4.47 billion) was attributed to e-commerce, 1.2
billion manat ($710 million) to POS terminals, and 2 million manat
($1.18 million) to self-service terminals and ATMs. Since the
beginning of the year, the volume of cashless domestic transactions
made via payment cards has accounted for 69.8% of all domestic card
transactions.


Dynamic growth is being observed in the payment service networks
of banks and Azerpost LLC. Specifically, compared to the end of
August last year, the number of ATMs has increased by 3.8%, while
the number of POS terminals has decreased by 7%.


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