BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 5. By the time the curtain fell on August 2025, the tally of transactions made with Visa payment cards from local financial institutions in Azerbaijan hit a whopping 125 million, racking up a total value of 7.2 billion manat (or $4.2 billion) in the process.
Data obtained by Trend from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA)
indicates that the aggregate count of Visa transactions surged by
29.6 million, reflecting a robust uptick of 31 percent, whereas the
cumulative transaction volume escalated by 1.3 billion manat
($764.3 million), translating to a significant 21.7 percent
increase relative to the corresponding timeframe of the previous
fiscal year.
In the interim, Visa cards disseminated by extraterritorial
financial entities represented 1.17 million transactional
occurrences, culminating in an aggregate volume of 100.9 million
manat ($59.3 million). This indicates a year-over-year escalation
of 311,000 transactions, reflecting a 36 percent uptick, alongside
a monetary augmentation of 18.8 million manat ($11 billion),
showcasing a 22.9 percent growth, respectively.
The initiation of Visa card transactions in Azerbaijan can be traced back to the early to mid-2000s, with Kapital Bank, a significant stakeholder, commencing its strategic partnership with Visa in 2003. The inaugural banking card within the nation was developed circa 1997 by AzeriCard, an entity whose technological frameworks exhibit compatibility with Visa protocols.
