Mastercard held its annual year end press conference at JW Marriott Hotel with the participation of Avsar Gurdal, General Manager, Turkey and Azerbaijan at Mastercard and Mehmet Gulez, Principal, Advisors Turkey & Azerbaijan.

The world is changing rapidly and Mastercard is excited to be bringing innovations in the financial sector, being a leader in modernizing payments and transforming transactions‎. 

Azerbaijan is now a prime example of rapid digitalization process. Cashless Azerbaijan – the program launched several years ago is now moving into greater action and digitalization of payments is one of the strategic plans of almost all governments, and MasterCard implements projects in Azerbaijan aimed at digitalization of the country's economy.

“There are 13 million bank cards per 10 million population in Azerbaijan, and at present, noncash transactions accounts for 40% of the bank card payments, of which 60 percent is claimed by e-commerce. The pandemic period led to changes in many processes worldwide, and quarantine measures put a stronger impact on the development of e-commerce at the time. We predict that the e-commerce sector will continue to grow, and we are working to further improve these operations. I would like to note that the obtained figures testify to a positive result achieved both by the competitive environment formed in the market and the actions taken by the regulator. Considering the current worldwide synchronization of payments, Azerbaijan suggests great potential for the national digital economy. In general, as Mastercard, the main goal of our activities in Azerbaijan is to sustainably increase the share of card payments in personal consumption expenditure, which currently stands at 25 percent.  Currently, Mastercard is working with four Azerbaijani banking partners on the implementation of simplified cross money transfers and the outcomes of these partnerships will be publicized soon”, - Avsar Gurdal said.

“Considering the current events related to non-cash payments in Azerbaijan, we can say that this country has already become a hub of cashless payments. New services are constantly introduced in Azerbaijan, and this is our main goal. As Mastercard, we have been one of the main parties of the cashless government program since 2017, and we continue our field-related activities for improving Azerbaijan's potential ecosystem.

Given the current potential and the rapid changes taking place in the global industry, as Mastercard, we actively work with all banks and fintech of Azerbaijan since our goal is to ensure the widespread distribution of the most up-to-date financial services in Azerbaijan”, - Mehmet Gulez added. 

***
About Mastercard (NYSE: MA), www.mastercard.com 

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.