By the end of last year, the assets of the banking sector amounted to 49.2 billion manats, which is 4.5 percent more than in the previous period.

According to Azernews, Zakir Nuriyev, chairman of the Azerbaijan Banks Association, said this at the Azerbaijan Financial Forum: Achievements and Challenges forum.

He said that last year, the volume of credit investments in the economy of Azerbaijan reached 23.2 billion manats.

"During this period, the coefficient of dollarization of loans decreased to 18.8 percent. The share of overdue loans in the portfolio decreased by 31 percent. The share of problematic loans in the portfolio decreased to 1.9 percent. The volume of deposits in banks increased by 2.3 percent to 34.6 billion manats. The volume of savings of individuals is equal to 12.5 billion manats. Banks' capital position has strengthened. Banks made a profit of 1.1 billion manats," added Zakir Nuriyev.

He also added that last year, the number of bank cards increased by 23 percent to 16.6 million. Chairman said that a large part of this growth was due to contactless cards.

"In the last 12 months, the number of cards increased by 3.1 million units, and 95.4 percent of these cards were contactless cards. In the eleven months of last year, 55.2 percent of transactions carried out with payment cards in the country were non-cash transactions. The volume of non-cash transactions with cards has more than doubled last year," added Zakir Nuriyev.