BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 26. The number of payment cards in circulation through banks and Azerpost LLC systems increased by 67,000 cards compared to the previous month, totaling approximately 19.9 million cards by the end of January 2025.
Data obtained by Trend from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan shows that this marks a 15.8 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The growth in payment cards is primarily due to a rise in debit cards, which increased by 18.1 percent, while credit cards saw a smaller increase of 0.3 percent.
The increase in payment cards has positively impacted the volume of cashless payments. During the month, the volume of domestic cashless transactions grew by 1.4 times compared to the same period last year, amounting to 6.9 billion manat ($4 billion) in January 2025.
Of the total volume of cashless payments, 5.8 billion manat ($3.4 billion) was related to e-commerce. The remaining amount, 1.1 billion manat ($647 million), was processed through POS terminals, and 3.1 million manat ($1.8 billion) was through self-service terminals. Cashless domestic transactions made through payment cards accounted for 68.5 percent of all domestic card operations in January.
A dynamic increase has also been observed in the payment service networks of banks and Azerpocht LLC. Compared to the end of January last year, the number of ATMs grew by 6.8 percent, and the number of POS terminals increased by 37.3 percent.