BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 29. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) plans to expand its open banking initiative into Open Finance as part of the next phase of the country's financial technology development, a senior central bank official said, Trend's correspondent reports from the event.
Speaking at the "Digital Financial Agenda of Azerbaijan" event in Baku, Ramil Makhmudov, deputy director of the CBA's Payment Systems and Products Development Department, said the development of open banking remains one of the regulator's flagship fintech projects.
"We have completed one strategic stage and are already working on the next. Work will begin on expanding the project towards Open Finance. Over this period, the Central Bank has implemented a number of measures to modernize the payment system infrastructure. Work was carried out to improve the software and hardware infrastructure, enhance its resilience, and increase system throughput.
The growth in transaction volumes is, on the one hand, a positive indicator, but on the other, it places additional responsibility on the Central Bank to ensure the smooth and sustainable operation of the payment infrastructure. The main task is to maintain the trust of payment service users," he said.
Makhmudov also noted that Azerbaijan introduced QR code payments last year following amendments to national legislation.
"Today, more than 100,000 POS terminals in Azerbaijan already support QR payments. This means a more accessible payment instrument has appeared on the market, one that fintech companies can actively use. The introduction of QR payments allows entrepreneurs to accept payments at a lower cost, while providing users with a payment instrument that fully complies with national legislation and the needs of the domestic market.
The popularity of QR payments continues to grow worldwide, including in countries with high bank card penetration.
From a financial perspective, the cost of this instrument is minimal," he said.
According to Makhmudov, the next phase of the initiative will be the rollout of static QR codes.
"First, we introduced dynamic QR codes to the market, and the next step will be the introduction of static QR codes. This will allow cashless payments to be accepted virtually anywhere in the country, including the most remote settlements," he said.
He added that expanding the use of static QR codes is expected to reduce reliance on cash and further promote cashless payments across Azerbaijan.
