Photo: Trend News Agency

BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 13. ABB Bank aims to establish cooperation with fintech companies and organizations in Turkic states in the near future to develop cross-border payments using QR codes, ABB Bank CEO Mehmet Ali Savaş said at a fintech mission involving representatives of Turkic states in Baku, Trend’s correspondent reports from the event.

According to Savaş, ABB Bank has increased the number of users of its ABB Mobile app from approximately 30,000–40,000 to more than 3 million.

“The app initially offered basic services, but today users can access investment services, purchase airline tickets and event tickets, and make international money transfers.

“Of course, we did not achieve all this on our own. Each of these services is supported by a fintech company or technology organization. For example, we work with a technology company to sell airline tickets, while for money transfers to Istanbul, other cities in Türkiye and Europe, we use the services of UPT or Mastercard,” he said.

Savaş emphasized the importance of close cooperation between banks and fintech companies.

According to him, cross-border payments among Turkic states could soon be made using QR codes based on common standards.

“If we look at what is needed to achieve this, we already have everything in place. We have AsQar, which works well, and we can easily use the relevant payment infrastructure in ABB Mobile and other banks’ mobile apps. Türkiye has the TROY system, and we have our central banks. As they say in Türkiye, all that remains is to bring the ingredients together and make halva. We have everything; we just need to combine the capabilities we already have,” he said.

Savaş expressed hope that the initiative would be implemented soon and said ABB Bank was ready to promptly establish cooperation with fintech companies and other organizations in the sector.

He added that this would make cross-border payments more cost-effective for both customers and the country as a whole.

The Baku Fintech Sector Trade Mission Program, organized by the Alliance of Turkic States Fintech (TÜRKFİN), is being held in Baku. Representatives of the financial and fintech sectors of Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Kazakhstan are participating.

The program focuses on prospects for developing digital payments across Turkic states, harmonizing approaches to fintech regulation and emerging technological trends in payment systems.