INTERNATIONAL FINANCE & BANKING SUMMIT 2026

Namig Aliyev was born in 1977 in Baku. He is a graduate of Baku State University. During his student years, he worked on a number of periodical publications. In 1999-2000 he worked in the Republican Scientific and Technical Library and in 2001-2003 in the Main Department of Cultural Education of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a leading specialist. As of 2004, he worked as a correspondent, leading correspondent, assistant editor, editor at the Free Azerbaijan Broadcasting Company "Azad Azərbaycan".

He started working in the Communication Department of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan in May 2010. Since July 2011, he has been the Head of the Public Relations Division of aforementioned department. He is the presenter of "Economic News" program  at Azerbaijan Television and Radio Broadcasting Closed Joint-Stock Company (AZTV).

Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Chairman of the Board, Banks Association of Türkiye

Born on April 7, 1975, in Imishli region of Azerbaijan Republic.

Education:

In 1992-1997, he received higher education at the Azerbaijan State University of Economics.

In 2004, he received a second master's degree in Journalism at the Institute of Public Relations of Georgia.

In 2009, he received his PhD in Economics and in 2017 he got Degree on Doctor of Economic Sciences.

In 2021, he graduated from Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education program "Leading Economic Growth". 

In 2022-2023, he graduated from the University of Oxford's master’s-level qualification - Postgraduate Diploma (PGDip) in Strategy and Innovation.

Pedagogical activity

In 2013 Vusal Gasimli was given the title of Associate Professor.

V.Gasimli was engaged in pedagogical activity in the UNEC Special Talented Group and MBA program in 2010-2014.

V.Gasimli provided public lectures at Harvard University, Washington University, California University, Cairo University, Seoul Hanyan and Hankuk Universities, and Rio de Janeiro University.

He worked as a guest scholar at Korea International Economic Policy Institute in 2013.

Vusal Gasimli is professor at the Azerbaijan Public Administration Academy under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan since 2020.

Vusal Gasimli was awarded the title of professor by the decision of the Supreme Attestation Commission Under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated April 19, 2024.

He has 10 books and about 500 scientific and publicist articles in Azerbaijani, Russian, Korean and English.

Labor Activity:

During the 12.05.2000-06.12.2003, the economic consultant in Express newspaper edition,

15.02.2005-19.11.2005, Economic columnist at ANS-PRESS Publishing House LLC,

19.11.2005-30.04.2007, President of ANS-PRESS Publishing House LLC,

09.02.2009-11.05.2011, Deputy of head of the Department at Azerbaijan Socio-Political University,

In 2007-2011, he worked on projects implemented by the European Union, the World Bank, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and several international organizations.

In 2011-2016, he worked as Head of the Department for Economic Analysis and Globalization of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

In 2016, he became an economic development consultant for the Asian Development Bank.

In 2015, he represented Azerbaijan at the T20 platform of brain centers of the G20.

From 10.05.2016 to present he is the Executive Director of the Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

He is also a member of the government commission established on the basis of the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan dated July 13, 2016 No. 2199 "On additional measures to improve the business environment in the Republic of Azerbaijan and further improvement of the position of our country in international rankings".

Vusal Gasimli was appointed Focal Point of UNESCAP in 2021.

Awards

Vusal Gasimli got the award of Astana Economic Forum for outstanding research achievements in 2012.

He was awarded the "Progress" Medal in 2018 by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

He was awarded the "15th anniversary of the Ministry of Defense Industry of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2005-2020)" jubilee medal in 2022.

He was awarded the "100 years of Heydar Aliyev (1923-2023)" jubilee medal by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2024.

He was awarded the 25th Anniversary Medal (1998–2023) by the Mine Action Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2024.

Vusal Gasimli speaks Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Spanish at A1 level.

Married, has three children.

Cristina Doros is a Senior Vice President, and Group Country Manager for Visa in the CISSEE region.

Cristina leads Visa's operations and strategy in 17 countries across Southern and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Ukraine, Moldova.

Prior to the current position, Cristina was holding the role of a Regional Manager for Central Asia and Azerbaijan at Visa. In this role, Cristina was managing overall Visa business in these markets focusing on strategy development and implementation, business development, technology, and innovations.

Before moving to Central Asia, Cristina was managing Caucasus cluster at Visa.

She has more than 25 years of experience in retail banking, information technology, innovations, cards, and mobile payments. Cristina joined Visa in 2016 to lead regional Core Products team overseeing Core products (Debit, Credit and Premium), loyalty platform development, digital solutions, and push payments.

Cristina holds a Master’s Degree with Honors in Economics from IEDC-Bled School of Business, Slovenia.  

After graduating from the secondary school he was admitted to the department of “Accounting” at Azerbaijan State Economic University and completed the full course on the speciality of “Economist” in 1981. Zakir Nuriyev started his labour activity as Leading Accountant at the “Control and Inspection” department of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic in 1981.

 Zakir Nuriyev did his military service during 1981-1983. He worked in the capacity of Accountant – Inspector, Chief Inspector and Deputy Chief Accountant at the “Control and Inspection” department of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic from July, 1983 until January, 1989 after having served in the military.

 He was appointed to the post of Manager of the “Control and Accounting” division at “Regional Communication” Production Association of the Ministry of Communications, Azerbaijan Republic in 1989. Zakir Nuriyev worked in the capacity of Chairman of the Management Board at “Rabitabank” Joint-Stock Commercial Bank during 1993-1998 and has been acting as Chairman of the Supervisory Board at “Rabitabank” Open Joint-Stock Company since 1998 up to date. He was elected President of the Azerbaijan Banks Association in 1996 and worked in that capacity until 2006. He has been member of the Presidium at Azerbaijan Banks Association from 2006 till 2015. He was re-elected President of Azerbaijan Banks Association in 2015.

Nurlan Hajiyev serves as Visa Senior Director and Country Manager for Azerbaijan, leading the company’s operations and strategy in the market. In this role, he focuses on advancing Azerbaijan’s digital payments ecosystem by strengthening Visa’s partnerships with banks, merchants, and cardholders and driving financial innovation.

Since joining Visa in 2013, Nurlan has played a pivotal role in several landmark initiatives, including the launch of Apple Pay and Visa B2B Connect in Azerbaijan and contributions to the Visa Token Service project.

Prior to working at Visa, Nurlan held senior leadership roles at DemirBank, serving as Marketing and Business Development Director and later as Director of the Plastic Cards Department. During his tenure, he led key initiatives in card issuance, digital banking, and customer engagement, facilitating the bank’s product expansion and modernization.

With over a decade of experience in financial services and a strong track record in business development and digital transformation, Nurlan continues to shape the future of payments in Azerbaijan.

Nurlan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance and Credit and a Master’s degree in Taxation from the Azerbaijan State University of Economics.

Mr. Ramil Mahmudov is a Deputy Director of the Payment systems and settlements department at Central Bank of Azerbaijan Republic. He is an experienced professional in payment systems, e-banking, card business, digital payments with more than 20 years at central banking. As co-author of several regulations and recommendations for payment institutions and Fintech, he also familiar with international experience about payments systems ecosystem and payment instruments and also with risk management, fraud management, chargeback rules.

Mr. Mahmudov holds Master’s degree in Banking and Finance from University of Luxembourg and Master’s degree in Finance from Azerbaijan State Economic University. He received Executive education diploma from New York University Stern School of Business and numerous training certificates in the field of payments and management in Europe and Asia.

Sadig Akhundov is an expert with over 15 years of experience at the intersection of banking and information technology. Throughout his career, he has successfully led a  range of digital transformation initiatives across several banks, driving innovation, operational efficiency, and technological modernization.

Currently, he is a Director of the IT Operations Department at the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, where he oversees the  critical IT functions, ensures the resilience and reliability of national payment infrastructure.

Azer is the Executive Director at the Azerbaijan Fintech Association (Azfina). He is a financial sector professional with over 15 years of international experience in banking and fintech. His main areas of expertise include digital payments, fintech regulation, and compliance, private and investment banking. As the head of the fintech association, he is committed to fostering the development of digital financial services, promoting fintech innovation, and enhancing international collaborations.

Teymur Aghakishiyev is a Chief Operating Officer at “AccessBank”. He has 16 years of experience in banking sector and has enjoyed many executive positions throughout his career in product development and management, product sales, strategy, digital payments, payments and cards infrastructure, treasury, settlements and cash management.

He loves to dig into customer problems and solve them with modern technology and puts the customer at the center of all that he do.

Teymur Aghakishiyev holds MBA degree in Banking from Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.

He is a professional trainer in banking.

Alexander has 20+ years of experience in payments and leads product development at eComCharge, the company behind the white-label SaaS platform beGateway.

Hikmet Can Yilmazsoy is the Head of Türkiye, Caucasus and Central Asia at Swift, where he is overseeing the relations and engagements with key stakeholders in the financial ecosystem including central banks, financial institutions, market infrastructures and regulatory bodies. Since joining Swift in 2018, Can served as the Country Manager for Türkiye and Qatar until his current role.

Prior to his tenure at Swift, he led business development and project management activities in cash management, payment systems and digital banking areas with a leading bank in Türkiye. In addition, Can drove high-impact strategic initiatives in the customer experience management, retail banking and corporate finance areas throughout his 16 years of banking career.

He holds an MBA degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a BSc in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University, with executive education from Columbia University and INSEAD.

Otabek Nasirov is the Chairman at Central Asian Fintech Association, a member of the expert council at Cyber Park, AICA, and the working groups of the Foreign Investors Council (FIC) under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Otabek actively participates in the development of the fintech market and community in Central Asia, regulatory sandboxes and local legislation of the fintech industry, including education on blockchain technology, convergence technologies such as AI, digital assets, cyber security and others. Represents and lobbies for the interests of the fintech community within key government agencies of Uzbekistan, including the Ministry of Digital Technologies, the Central Bank, the Competition Promotion and Consumer Protection Committee, the National Agency for Perspective Projects, and the State Tax Committee.

Otabek member of the UMAY Angels Club, ICLUB by Venture Found TA Ventures and cooperates with the Uzbekistan Venture Capital Association (UzVCA), the National Venture Capital Fund (UzVC), and the AloqaVentures.

His knowledge and experience are the result of working in international and global companies such as Coca-Cola, Carlsberg Group, General Motors, Ernst & Young and SIT Learning within the Swiss International Research Institute Schaffhausen Institute of Technology and others.

Graduate of the Tashkent State Law Institute and the Moscow School of Management "Skolkovo".

Otabek is an ambassador for Global Blockchain Business Council (GBBC) and Chapter Zero Uzbekistan (Climate Governance Initiative | CGI ).

Farrukh Farajullayev is a commercial leader with over 10 years of experience in the IT, cloud, and digital technology sectors. As the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at AzInTelecom, he drives commercial strategy and execution, overseeing key functions such as sales, marketing, product development, and business development. His expertise in cloud, digital solutions, and emerging technologies enables him to design and implement initiatives that deliver substantial revenue growth and business expansion.

Farrukh has played a pivotal role in the development and rollout of services including AzInTelecom’s cloud solutions, the SİMA digital solutions platform, and other innovative offerings designed to support businesses in their digital transformation journey. His strategic vision has led to effective go-to-market strategies aligned with market needs, resulting in significant revenue and market share growth.

Committed to customer satisfaction, innovation, and collaboration, Farrukh has cultivated strong relationships with clients, partners, and stakeholders, fostering long-term loyalty and sustainable success.

Fidan Tofidi joined the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2023 as an advisor on innovations. Since 2024, she has been leading the newly established Financial Technologies and Innovations Department.

Under her leadership, the department is engaged in key areas such as the Regulatory Sandbox, product research and development (including Open Banking and Distributed KYC platforms), and the development and coordination of the fintech ecosystem. Currently, a number of strategic projects are being implemented under her guidance in these areas, and efforts continue toward integrating financial technologies into public policy.

Before joining the Central Bank, Fidan worked at PASHA Bank, where she was responsible for managing partnerships and overseeing innovative projects. During this time, she contributed to strengthening cooperation between the financial sector and technology companies, and integrating digital solutions into banking services.

A significant milestone in Fidan’s career was her role at Azercell Telecom, where she worked at the Barama Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center. She led one of the first initiatives supporting the development of the startup ecosystem in Azerbaijan, focusing on promoting innovative ideas, advancing technological entrepreneurship, and supporting young startup founders.

Akif Bağırov hazırda Azərbaycan Respublikasının Mərkəzi Bankında Sədrin müşaviri vəzifəsində çalışır. Onun texnologiya sahəsində 15 ildən çox, bank sektorunda isə 8 ildən artıq informasiya və kibertəhlükəsizlik üzrə ixtisaslaşmış təcrübəsi vardır. O, dəyişkən maliyyə mühitində həm effektiv, həm də praktik olan təhlükəsizlik proqramlarının hazırlanması, tənzimləyici tələblərə uyğunluq, risklərin azaldılması və strateji istiqamətin müəyyən edilməsi sahələrində fəaliyyət göstərir.

2021–2023-cü illər ərzində Akif Bağırov PAŞA Bank ASC-nin Təhlükəsizlik blokuna daxil olan İnformasiya Təhlükəsizliyi Xidmətləri şöbəsinin rəhbəri kimi çalışmış və PCI DSS, NIST və CIS kimi beynəlxalq çərçivələrlə uyğunluğun təmin olunmasına rəhbərlik etmişdir.

Aigul Telkarayeva is a distinguished compliance expert, educator, and consultant specializing in ethics, anti-money laundering (AML), governance, and risk management. With over 20 years of experience across Central Asia and the Gulf region, she is widely recognized for her leadership in regulatory compliance, risk governance, and business transformation.

As President of the Institute of Chartered Compliance Professionals (ICCP), Aigul leads international initiatives to advance excellence in compliance through professional standards, education, and research. Her career includes senior roles as Head of Compliance, where she built comprehensive compliance frameworks, trained executives, and led major fraud investigations.

Under her leadership, ICCP is shaping the future of the compliance profession by developing benchmark academic curricula, certification programs, and global compliance resource center. Aigul combines strategic vision with practical expertise to help organizations align regulatory obligations with ethical business performance.

Araz Hasan-zadeh has over 8 years of experience in payment systems, card operations, clearing, and digital fraud analytics.

His core areas of expertise include fraud risk modeling, developing behavior-based analytical approaches, and detecting anomalies across payment channels. Araz also leads a range of advanced initiatives focused on optimizing and automating business processes, ensuring security against fraudulent activities, implementing fraud management systems, and enriching data for better fraud detection.

Dr Michael Salmony is an internationally recognised leader on strategy of business innovations in  digital and financial services with a particular focus on Payments, Open Finance, FinTech, Digital  Identity, B2B/e-Invoicing/SCF, AI for Financial Services and Electronic Money/CBDC/Stablecoins.

He is board-level advisor to major international banks, industry associations, regulators, top  consultancies, service providers and investors across the world. He regularly helps shape future  directions in all key decision making bodies (e.g. European Commission/ European  Parliament/ECB/CEPS Think-Tank in Europe, and central banks from Japan to Uruguay and  Kazakhstan). For 10 years he served as Executive Adviser to the Board of Worldline Financial Services,  helping to bring them from a local player to become the world’s 4th largest financial processor of  transactional services, which handles over 17 trillion Euro per year.

He also works with multiple regions where financial innovations are currently emerging - for example  with the World Bank in Central Asia, as Board Member of Fintech Africa, as Advisory Board Member  to Mastercard in Latin America, as strategic partner to FinTech Istanbul.

His views are much in demand as keynote speaker at international events and he appears on  TV/Radio/all electronic media on advances in finance and is quoted extensively (e.g. Financial Times,  Harvard Business Manager, New Scientist, The Economist and governments from Ghana to Malaysia).  He teaches at the Oxford Business School on "AI in Fintech and Open Banking” and at further  universities such as in Australia, Turkey, Germany. He has published much own original work which  has been translated into many languages including German, Italian, Dutch, Finnish, Polish, Danish,  Turkish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese and is cited in hundreds of publications around the world. He  is extensively networked into the new financial services space and has one of the top most viewed  profiles on business social media platforms.

He is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers, Freeman of the City of London  and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce FRSA.

Previous positions include Director Business Development of leading national central bank (Bank of  the Year, Best Innovator Award).

Before entering the world of finance, he helped transform companies and business models in many  industries as IBM's Director of Market Development Media and Communications Technologies.

He studied at the University of Cambridge UK and is married, with two millennial children.

In the current role as Country Manager for the Caucasus and Central Asia within Swift’s Business Development and Strategy team, I lead strategic engagements with financial institutions, regulators, and FinTech’s across the region. My work centers on strengthening collaboration, advancing market adoption of secure and efficient cross‑border payment solutions, and supporting the optimization of end‑to‑end payments processes. Through these initiatives, I help drive the region’s broader financial digitalization and contribute to building a more integrated and resilient ecosystem.

Previously, I contributed to finance operations optimization within Swift after joining in 2018, working across accounting, controlling, and procurement. I later supported clients in enhancing their KYC operational frameworks, enabling more scalable and harmonized compliance practices.

I hold a master’s degree in international management from the University of Applied Sciences in Augsburg, Germany

During his 12-year tenure at Deutsche Bank, Hubertus Väth held the positions of Analyst, Head  of Communications and Chief Economist for Asia and Global Head of Marketing for Wealth  Management at offices in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Singapore. He is the Founder of the  NewMark Group and CEO of NewMark Finanzkommunikation GmbH, established in 1997 and  specialized in market research, business consulting and financial communication. In 2008,  Väth was appointed Managing Director of Frankfurt Main Finance, the Financial Centre  initiative for Frankfurt and the leading Financial Centre in Germany and the Euro Zone. In 2018,  he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the World Alliance of International Financial  Centers (WAIFC), which was created to facilitate cooperation and exchange of best practices  among international financial centres and to foster greater exchange with international public  authorities. In 2025, he became the Vice Chair of WAIFC.  Väth regularly speaks at international financial conferences on Brexit, FinTechs and Financial  Centre Development; Euro Clearing and Green Finance. Väth is a Special Fellow of the Financial  Think Tank of AFCA and publishes regularly in this capacity. He is a member of Rotary Club and  has a Diploma in Economics from the University Mainz, Germany. Väth is an occasional  lecturer at Universities and Business Schools.

Anastasiya Nenasheva serves as the Head of Marketing for CISSEE, leading the marketing agenda across 17 markets. Her main areas of responsibility include Client Marketing, Product Marketing, Merchants Marketing and Sponsorship.

Anastasiya joined Visa in 2019, successfully leading several key regional initiatives spanning premium benefits and loyalty enhancements, including Digital Concierge and the revised Visa Rewards Program (VRP). Before joining the Marketing team, she oversaw the focused product agenda as Head of Consumer Payments & CPV.

Prior to joining Visa, Anastasiya spent a 7-year tenure in Core Products at Mastercard, where she was leading the Loyalty Solutions team for Central & Eastern Europe region, being responsible for the development of VAS and brand preference and rewards platforms.

Anastasiya holds a PhD in Economics and a degree as an English interpreter from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Deputy Director, Payment Systems Department, Bank of Baku OJSC/Azerbaijan Banks Association, Chairman of Commitee on Payment Systems and Digital Banking

I began my professional career in digital fraud prevention in 2017 at “Azericard” processing center. Later, from 2018 to 2022, I worked at “Pasha Bank” in the Digital Fraud Management unit. Between 2022 and 2025, I served as the Head of the Digital Fraud Prevention Team at “Unibank.”

Throughout my career, I have specialized in fraud prevention across mobile and online banking, bank cards, acquiring services, electronic commerce, physical payment terminals, as well as various digital payment channels used by payment service providers.

CISO, Managing Director, Telco Industry

My name is Shahin Heydarov, and I have been working in the finance and banking sector for many years. Currently, I serve as the Head of AML & Monitoring Division at PASHA Bank. My professional experience mainly covers anti-money laundering, transaction monitoring, risk management, and compliance. Throughout my career, I have gained extensive experience by working in both local and international companies.

During my professional journey, I worked at prestigious companies such as Citibank and Accenture in different positions. These roles helped me develop strong expertise in financial risk analysis, audit processes, investigation of suspicious transactions, and implementation of internal control mechanisms. Teamwork, responsibility, and effective decision-making are among my key strengths.

I completed my Master’s degree in Quantitative Finance at the University of Warsaw and earned my Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Azerbaijan University. In addition, I hold the internationally recognized CAMS certification. I am fluent in English, Russian, and Turkish, and I also possess strong skills with financial and analytical software.

Emre Akkoyun is a software engineering leader with over 15 years of experience building digital banking platforms and distributed systems at scale.

He has held senior engineering roles at some of the region's most prominent financial institutions, including Emirates NBD, Visa, and KIB — contributing to the development of greenfield digital banks such as Liv (KSA) and the E20 Digital Business Bank. His expertise spans microservices architecture, digital transformation, and large-scale technical delivery in highly regulated financial environments.

Emre currently serves as Head of Software Engineering at BGTS — Turkey's number one independent software development and technology services company, with a strong focus on the banking and finance sector. In this role, he leads engineering teams building the next generation of financial infrastructure for some of Turkey's most demanding institutions.

He holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from Istanbul Technical University, an MSc in Software Architecture from Bahçeşehir University, and completed MIT's Executive Education program in Innovation and Technology Acceleration.

At this Banking & Finance event, Emre will be exploring how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping banking software development and banking operations , and redefining how institutions make smarter, faster products — drawing on real-world lessons from over a decade at the forefront of the industry.

I am the Founder and CEO of NetKoruma Cyber Threat Prevention Services, a company developing technologies for detecting and blocking phishing and fraud incidents on the internet since 2016.

Adilkhan Mukazhanov is a business and technology executive specializing in digital identity, biometrics, and enterprise IT solutions within the financial and telecommunications sectors.

He graduated from Physics and Mathematics Lyceum No. 8 in Pavlodar and earned a degree in Computer Engineering and Software Development from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

He is a certified project management professional, holding IPMA certification as well as ITIL IT Operational Support and Analysis certification.

Since 2016, he has held leadership and expert roles in major telecommunications companies in Kazakhstan. At TransTelecom JSC, he contributed to the implementation and administration of an electronic document management system. At Beeline Kazakhstan, he worked as a Partner Relations Expert and was involved in launching solutions for the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In collaboration with development teams and partners, he contributed to increasing product revenue by 3.5 times.

He currently serves as Regional Business Development Director at VisionLabs, focusing on the financial sector, and as Executive Director of VisionLabs’ representative office in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Under his leadership, VisionLabs’ biometric technologies have been adopted by seven second-tier banks in Kazakhstan as well as the Identification Data Processing Center under the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan.