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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