Financial technology (FinTech) applications in the banking sector: Comparison of Türkiye and Azerbaijan

The introduction of financial technology into the banking sector has witnessed the emergence of new digital technology platforms that offer new services, new products and a new delivery method to the customer worldwide. As financial technology helps in reducing cost gains and saving time and effort in implementation, new business challenges the existing business with technological advancements. These financial technology platforms (FinTechs) have emerged in many forms such as crowdfunding, payments, asset management, lending, capital markets and insurance services. Traditional banks are unable to keep up with new technology to provide better products and services to their customers. In the thesis study, financial technology innovation that develops cryptocurrency, open banking, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, robot consulting applications by utilizing technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things is explained with national and international examples. In the last section of the thesis, the financial technology (FinTech) ecosystem of Turkey and Azerbaijan is analyzed comparatively. According to the findings obtained from important indicator data such as the Global Financial Center Index and the Global Innovation Index, it has been determined that Turkey and Azerbaijan have significant differences in terms of periodic trends and geopolitical advantages for their financial technology ecosystems. The reason why the research was not conducted with other important global indexes is Azerbaijan's young economy and its financial technology ecosystem, which is still in the development stage. Therefore, the country was included in the comparison with only these two indexes. On the other hand, the comparison section of the study is due to the limited information on Azerbaijan's digital banking and financial technology system and the fact that public institutions, private institutions and associations are content with less comprehensive information. According to the results obtained from the comparisons, Azerbaijan lags behind Turkey in the financial technology ecosystem. Azerbaijan has a lot to learn from its brother country Turkey in this regard. Azerbaijan needs to do more work to become the center of the South Caucasus in the financial technology and digitalization field.