Azerbaijan announces goals of digital payments strategy for 2022

In line with the goals of the Digital Payments Strategy for 2021-2023, the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has announced goals for the current year, Report informs referring to the semi-annual review of payment systems presented by the CBA.

According to the document, this year the activities will continue in the following areas:

- ensuring stable and reliable operation of payment and information systems;

- creation of a framework for control over non-bank payment service providers;

- implementation of the ISO20022 international standard in the infrastructure of the national payment system;

- expanding the scope of the instant payment system;

- expanding measures to encourage and promote digital payments.

At the same time, in accordance with the requirements of this strategy and modernity, the goal was set to bring the indicator for digital banking in 2022 to 80%, and the share of non-cash turnover in transactions with payment cards within the country - to 40%.

Last year, payments worth 38 billion manats were made in Azerbaijan through bank cards, of which 11.5 billion manats (30.3%) were non-cash payments. This is 79.6% more than a year earlier. The number of transfers through digital banking amounted to 80% (60.4 million units), and the volume of transfers to 73% (163.1 billion manats).