Uzbekistan: Post-Soviet Banking to Central Asia’s Fintech Potential

The following showcases the 2026 developments of fintech and wider digital of Uzbekistan.

Less than a decade ago, Uzbekistan was one of Central Asia’s more closed economies. Foreign exchange was tightly controlled, the state dominated much of the economy and private enterprise operated within an environment considerably less open than neighbouring Kazakhstan.

That began changing after President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in 2016. Currency liberalisation, privatisation, investment reforms and greater international engagement followed. At the same time, a young population increasingly embraced smartphones, e-commerce and digital payments.

In 2026, Uzbekistan is attempting another transition. The country has introduced its first dedicated National Strategy for the Development of Financial Technologies for 2026–2030, open banking is being introduced and the government wants to position Tashkent as a regional fintech centre.

Uzbekistan’s fintech story is consequently becoming about much more than payments. It is increasingly part of the country’s attempt to reinvent its economy.

Scale gives Uzbekistan an advantage

With a population exceeding 37 million, Uzbekistan is Central Asia’s most populous country. That matters. A fintech company established in Tashkent has access to a substantially larger domestic consumer market than one launched in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan or Turkmenistan.

The economy itself is relatively diversified. Gold, natural gas, agriculture, textiles and manufacturing remain important, while services, construction, technology and tourism have expanded.

Tashkent dominates banking and technology, with major financial institutions including the National Bank of Uzbekistan, Uzpromstroybank, Kapitalbank, Ipak Yuli Bank and Hamkorbank.

The country’s demographics provide another advantage. A large proportion of Uzbekistan’s population is under 30, creating a sizeable generation of consumers with relatively little attachment to traditional branch-based banking. The Central Bank says digital adoption is now approaching 70 per cent.

Click and Payme changed how Uzbeks pay

Uzbekistan’s fintech transformation began before the government developed a formal fintech strategy. Two companies became particularly important: Click and Payme.

Both helped normalise app-based payments, allowing consumers to transfer money and pay for utilities, mobile services and other everyday expenses digitally. Their success demonstrated something important. Uzbek consumers were willing to move quickly towards digital finance when products solved practical problems.

The ecosystem subsequently expanded into digital banking, instalment financing, e-commerce and lending. In many respects, payments became the gateway through which Uzbekistan’s wider digital economy developed.

Then Uzum became something much bigger

Perhaps the clearest indication of how far the market has progressed is Uzum. The company has developed an ecosystem spanning e-commerce, digital banking, payments and consumer finance, effectively combining several parts of Uzbekistan’s rapidly digitising economy.

This past March, Uzum secured more than $130million in strategic investment led by sovereign entities from Oman, establishing a pre-money valuation reference point of $2.3billion. Existing international investors including Tencent also participated.

Two months later, the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) signed a $70million investment loan agreement with Uzum to support expansion of its fintech business.

For Uzbekistan, the significance extends beyond one company. A multi-billion-dollar domestic technology platform would have been difficult to imagine before the country’s economic opening.

2026 gives fintech its own national strategy

The government now wants more companies to follow. Uzbekistan’s National Strategy for the Development of Financial Technologies for 2026–2030 gives fintech a formal position within economic policy. The targets are ambitious.

Uzbekistan wants to attract $1billion of foreign investment into fintech start-ups and increase the number of fintech market participants to at least 200 by 2030.

The Central Bank is also developing an innovation hub and regulatory sandbox, while fintech forums are intended to connect domestic companies with international investors and financial institutions. This past August, Tashkent hosted the inaugural Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum, organised by the Central Bank alongside the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN), an organisation established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The ambition is explicit: position Uzbekistan as Central Asia’s fintech capital.

Open banking could change the market again

Perhaps the most important reform is less visible to consumers. Uzbekistan plans to introduce open banking by September this year. The system is intended to enable secure and standardised data exchange between banks, payment organisations and fintech companies when customers provide permission.

The Central Bank is simultaneously working on a national payment switch, unified QR-payment standards and account-to-account transfers.  For fintech companies, open banking could be particularly significant.

Access to customer-permissioned financial data can support budgeting applications, alternative credit scoring, payment initiation and personalised financial products. It could shift competition from who controls the customer account towards who provides the best service around it.

Financial inclusion remains unfinished

Rapid digitalisation should not obscure an important weakness. According to the latest World Bank Global Findex data, only 60.7 per cent of adults had an account in 2024, meaning almost four in ten remained outside formal account ownership. Among adults with conventional financial-institution accounts surveyed by the World Bank, around 60 per cent reported using a card or mobile telephone to make payments or send or receive money.

Government payments are helping close some gaps. Between 2021 and 2024, the proportion of Uzbek women receiving government-to-person payments directly into an account increased from 20 to 34 per cent.

Fintech therefore has two roles. It can make finance more sophisticated for existing users while bringing millions of people into the formal system for the first time.

Looking ahead

Uzbekistan’s fintech ambitions have changed dramatically. The country is no longer simply trying to digitise a post-Soviet banking system. It wants foreign fintech investment, open banking, interoperable payments and companies capable of scaling across Central Asia.

Uzum’s rise demonstrates what that new environment can produce, while Click and Payme helped establish the digital-payment behaviour upon which the next generation can build. The biggest question is whether Uzbekistan can maintain the pace of reform.

If it does, Central Asia’s fintech centre may no longer automatically be assumed to sit in Kazakhstan. Tashkent increasingly wants that title for itself.