Central Banks and Cash Round-Up

This month, our periodic series of articles covering cash information in central bank annual reports focuses on Asia, specifically Azerbaijan, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA)

Currency in circulation: by the end of the year, this had increased by 12.1% (AZN 2.1 billion / $1.24 billion), reaching AZN 19.6 billion / $11.53 billion. National currency reserves rose to AZN 7.1 billion / $4.18 billion, sufficient to provide coverage through 2026.

Counterfeiting: anti-counterfeiting efforts uncovered 440 fake national banknotes (worth AZN 39,000 and 550 counterfeit foreign notes. CBA’s regional cash offices also exchanged 43,600 unfit banknotes from the public, totalling AZN 2.63 million.

Payments: by the end of 2025, there were 22 million payment cards in use, supported by 3,600 ATMs and 184,200 POS terminals. The value of domestic card transactions rose by 25.6% to AZN 99.1 billion, with cashless operations accounting for 67.6% of this total, up 3.4%. E-commerce transactions grew by 43.4% in volume and 29.8% in value. Internet banking values increased by 12.4%, and mobile banking rose by 14.3%.