BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 19. Some time ago, a notification was sent to bank customers in Azerbaijan regarding potential temporary difficulties when making payments with Mastercard cards via Apple Pay and Google Pay. The notification said that Mastercard was conducting technical work to upgrade its card systems, and that any resulting issues could persist for 20–25 days.
In response to an inquiry from Trend regarding this matter, Mastercard clarified that the published information did not reflect any actual technical changes, and that the notice in question has since been retracted.
"Mastercard payment services continue to operate as usual. Cardholders can continue to use their cards, including for payments made via mobile wallets, just as they did before, without needing to take any additional steps," the company stated.
Thus, according to Mastercard’s statement, cardholders can continue to make payments via Apple Pay and Google Pay as they normally would.
The volume of transactions using Mastercard payment cards in Azerbaijan exceeded 4 billion manat ($2.3 billion).
According to a statistical bulletin from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), as of the end of August of this year, over 76.6 million transactions totaling 4.33 billion manat ($2.5 billion) were processed using Mastercard cards issued by the country’s resident financial institutions (including payment cards issued by statistical units).
Compared to August of last year, the number of transactions increased by 2.21 million (3%), while their total value decreased by 432 million manat or $254.2 million (9.1%).
The number of transactions using Mastercard cards issued by non-resident financial institutions totaled 771,000, with a transaction volume of 68.2 million manat ($40.1 million).
Compared to August of last year, the number of such transactions increased by more than 329,600, or 74.7%, and the volume grew by more than 22,200 manat ($13,064), or 48.3%.
The total number of payment cards issued by banks and Azerpost LLC in Azerbaijan exceeded 22.97 million as of the end of August 2026, increasing by 189,000 units. Compared to the same period last year, the number of payment cards in circulation increased by 8.7%. The number of debit cards increased by 10.2%, while the number of credit cards decreased by 4.3%. Since the beginning of the year, the volume of domestic cashless transactions has risen by 13.2% compared to the same period last year.
The growth in non-cash payments continued. In August 2026, the volume of domestic non-cash transactions made via payment cards totaled almost 8.9 billion manat ($5.1 billion). Of this amount, 7.6 billion manat ($4.47 billion) was attributed to e-commerce, 1.2 billion manat ($710 million) to POS terminals, and 2 million manat ($1.18 million) to self-service terminals and ATMs. Since the beginning of the year, the volume of cashless domestic transactions made via payment cards has accounted for 69.8% of all domestic card transactions.
Dynamic growth is being observed in the payment service networks of banks and Azerpost LLC. Specifically, compared to the end of August last year, the number of ATMs has increased by 3.8%, while the number of POS terminals has decreased by 7%.
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