The Instant Payment System (IPS) has been created by the Central Bank as part of the ‘State Program on expansion of digital payments in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2018-2020’ approved by Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated 26 September 2018.

The key challenge of the modern era is to make payment systems available for individuals and legal entities everywhere and at any time and complete full settlements on transactions 24/7/365 at the moment of payments. The main goal of launch of the IPS is to facilitate 24/7/365 settlements between individuals and businesses, that are customers of banks and other non-bank payment system providers in Azerbaijan, as well as between these entities and public institutions. Settlements between payers and payees in this system are completed within 5-20 sec with a notification received by both parties. Authentication, authorization, clearing and settlements on transactions conducted in the system are provided in a single transaction format in a real time.

Transactions in the IPS are conducted in the national currency (the Azerbaijani manat – AZN). In case the customer account is in any currency other than the national currency, banks convert payments as of the exchange rate of the day.

Settlements in the IPS are conducted based on preset liquidity limits for participants within their funds in the Real Time Gross Settlement System (AZIPS). There is a functionality for participating organizations to manage liquidity on non-business days. The system set a limit of AZN40000 for each payment transaction except for budget payments. The system operates 24/7/365 without any time limit. The transaction initiated by the user in the IPS is executed immediately if the funds allocated to ensure liquidity in his/her bank account and liquidity allocated for the bank that he/she is served by in the IPS are sufficient. Otherwise, the user is notified that the payment has not been made.

The system synchronizes the data on use of funds allocated to the main correspondent account with the AZIPS 4 times a working day. In this case, if more than 80% of the funds allocated by any participating organization for use in the IPS is used, it is notified accordingly during each transaction that the organization's customers wish to conduct.

Customers of the banks integrated to the system can sign in using bank’s e-channels or the AniPay mobile application and use their bank accounts in the IPS.
The Government Payment Portal (GPP), created to ensure collection of budget, utilities, communications, fines, insurance and other payments from a single platform, has also been integrated to the IPS. Thus, the IPS allows legal entities and individuals to pay for more than 1000 services provided by organizations integrated to the GPP through the IPS.

Payments are received in merchants, catering entities using dynamic QR code created in IPS integrated cash registers or POS terminals, as well as QR code in the form of static board.