BAKU, Azerbaijan - New Central Bank payment-system tariffs scheduled to take effect on April 1, 2027, do not automatically mean that card-to-card transfers will become more expensive for consumers.
The tariffs apply to banks and other participants using Azerbaijan’s payment infrastructure. They are not a new commission that the Central Bank will directly deduct from consumers’ cards, according to Vesti Baku.
Under the Central Bank’s tariff decision, the maximum charge for services in the real-time gross settlement system will be cut in half. The ceiling for the low-value payments clearing and settlement system will fall by one-third. The regulator has also established tariffs for transactions processed through the Interbank Card Center.
Whether customers ultimately pay more will depend on each bank’s pricing policy.
Banking expert Emin Karimov said even a rapid transfer between two cards involves a chain of participants, each providing part of the service. A unified tariff schedule allows banks to calculate processing costs in advance.
Karimov said large banks may be able to absorb those costs through their own revenue and preserve existing terms for customers. Smaller banks could feel a greater burden, potentially affecting commissions on some transactions.
He said some banks might reconsider the terms applied to repeat transfers. That is a forecast, however. The Central Bank’s decision does not announce a mandatory fee for a customer’s second or third transfer.
Banking expert Ismail Mammadov likewise said the new infrastructure tariffs should not be automatically treated as an increase in transfer costs for the public.
Mammadov said lower bank operating costs and strong competition could lead to more favorable terms for customers. If a bank instead chooses to pass expenses on to users, the change could appear in its transfer pricing.
The April 1, 2027, effective date therefore does not mean that all card-to-card transfers will become paid services or that every existing commission will increase.
Cardholders should review their bank’s own terms, including the commission rate, the limit on free transfers and charges for sending money to cards issued by other banks. A previous AZE.US report lists the Central Bank’s transaction bands and fixed infrastructure fees.