Last week, the Fintex Summit 2024 was held in the capital city of Azerbaijan, Baku. The conference connected the banking, fintech and regulation sectors’ players in an engaging two day event. The event proved that the Eurasian region has a swiftly developing financial technology sector with solutions and innovations worth learning from.
Baku Fintex Summit 2024 hosted close to 1500 participants from the banking, fintech, regulation and diplomacy sectors, allowing connections to be made both across industries and countries.
The 1500 participants represented over 120 companies, mainly from Azerbaijan and Turkey, but also from Russia and Uzbekistan. Furthermore, ABA, the Azerbaijan Banks Association, AzFina, the Azerbaijan Fintech Association, Central Bank of Azerbaijan and ABTC, Azerbaijan Training Center were also represented, some of whom we have managed to talk about the region’s fintech developments.
AzFina collaboration with Fintech Bridges of Hungary
In addition to the exciting keynotes and networking opportunities at the Fintex Summit 2024, the delegation of Peak, a Hungarian fintech company, was welcomed by Tamás Torma, the Ambassador of Hungary to Azerbaijan.
The Hungarian Embassy in Azerbaijan had assisted the Peak delegation to sign a collaboration agreement with AzFina. The collaboration is part of Fintech Bridges of Hungary, a non-profit initiative assisting Hungarian fintech companies entering international markets, and vice versa.
AzFina includes 18 fintech companies working with various banks and financial institutions in the region. The AzFina members have a wide range of technological solutions. These vary from payment services to e-wallet solutions and IT security, among many. The agreement serves as a great potential for both the Hungarian and Azerbaijani fintechs and financial institutions.
A growing e-wallet ecosystem
Although Azerbaijan has 31 banks serving a population of 10.14 million people, only 46.26% own a bank account at a financial institution or a mobile-money-service provider. The low access to banking services has evolved some large e-wallet solution providers in Azerbaijan.
One of the largest players is eManat, a local fintech with close to 5 million users across the country. The company provides an e-wallet solution combined with 3000 terminals across Azerbaijan, where customers can manage a wide range of financial activities. The terminals allow customers to deposit cash to initiate peer-to-peer transactions, pay their utility and internet bills, pay taxes or access banking services. Similar solution providers in Azerbaijan include Portmanat and Pashapay.