BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 9. Key indicators of Azerbaijan's banking sector, including lending, deposits, capitalization, and the development of non-cash payments, show steady growth, President of the Azerbaijan Banks Association Zakir Nuriyev said at the International Finance and Banking Summit taking place in Baku, Trend's correspondent reports.
According to him, expanding access to financial resources under state programs has been identified as one of the key priorities: "This includes the development of agricultural lending, agricultural insurance, subsidy, guarantee and concessional financing mechanisms, as well as support for relevant institutional instruments," he explained.
Nuriyev noted that the volume of loans provided by state funds across all areas reached 1.2 billion manat ($706 million) during the reporting period.
He said that the banking sector's deposit portfolio continues to grow and exceeded 37.8 billion manat ($22.2 billion), increasing by 2.8% year-on-year.
"Household deposits increased by 18.7% to 17.3 billion manat ($10.2 billion), reflecting continued public confidence in the banking system and the strengthening of banks' funding base.
A decline in dollarization was also recorded: the share of foreign-currency deposits fell to 35.7%, while the share of foreign-currency savings declined to 30.2%," he said.
According to him, the banking sector's capital reached 7.7 billion manat ($4.5 billion), up 9.7%, reflecting the continued strengthening of banks' financial resilience.
Nuriyev highlighted the active development of digital payments: "In the first four months of 2026, payment card transactions totaled 49.4 billion manat ($29.1 billion), which is 11% higher than in the same period last year."
"The volume of cashless transactions increased from 29.9 billion manat ($17.6 billion) to 34.5 billion manat ($20.3 billion). As a result, the share of cashless payments in total card transactions rose from 67.1% to 69.9%," he added.
