BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 11. The Central Bank
of Azerbaijan (CBA) is exploring the possibility of expanding QR
payments beyond the domestic market, and applying cross-border QR
payments through potential interoperability models with instant
payment systems of other countries in the upcoming phases, and
studying the relevant international experiences, a source in the
CBA told Trend.


The source noted that the application and use of QR payments in
the country is expanding gradually, and this process is being
implemented by the CBA through the instant payment system.


"At the current stage, technical integrations have been carried
out by banks according to the AZQR standard, relevant
functionalities are being gradually put into use in POS terminals
and mobile banking applications, and work is continuing to expand
the ecosystem. This approach serves to ensure the implementation of
QR-based payments according to a single standard, and ultimately
improves the user experience in QR payments. Thanks to the single
standard, users can make payments by scanning any AZQR code through
any mobile banking application. At the same time, this approach has
a positive effect on optimizing costs for economic entities by
forming a single technical framework in the market," the source
explained.


The source emphasized that the current progress in this
direction is positively assessed, and the main focus is on
increasing the use of AZQR payments in daily retail payments,
improving the user experience, and ensuring the functional
compatibility of participating banks in the ecosystem.







The source added that for this purpose, analysis is being
carried out at both the technical and user experience levels.


In December of last year, the volume of domestic cashless
transactions experienced a 19% increase compared to the same month
in 2024. During the reporting period, the total volume of cashless
payments made via cards reached 10.09 million manat (approximately
$5.94 billion). Of this total, 8.8 million manat ($5.20 billion)
was attributed to electronic commerce transactions. The remaining
payments included 1.26 million manat ($741,000) processed through
POS terminals, and 3 million manat ($1.8 million) transacted via
self-service terminals and ATMs. Since the beginning of the year,
payments made through domestic cards have accounted for 67.6% of
all card-based transactions within the country.


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