Uzbekistan, located in Central Asia, is a unitary, constitutional, presidential republic comprising 12 provinces, one autonomous republic, and the capital city, Tashkent. It shares borders with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. The official language of the country is Uzbek.
Uzbekistan is a member of several international organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), and the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO).
Historically known for its cotton production during Soviet times, Uzbekistan has experienced significant GDP growth since the mid-2000s. The government aims to transition to a market-oriented economy and achieve the status of an industrialized, high middle-income country by 2050.
In 2016, Uzbekistan underwent its first leadership transition in 27 years following the death of President Islam Karimov. Newly elected President Shavkat Mirziyoyev prioritized liberalizing the business environment, reforming banking, trade, and currency systems, and combating corruption to create a more favourable investment climate.
Although card usage is widespread, Uzbekistan lags behind other Eurasian nations in adopting digital payments due to legacy telecom infrastructure and limited internet access. Over the last decade, policies promoting digitization have accelerated the growth of digital and mobile payment services, including instant payments and cardless transactions directly from bank accounts.
Mobile payments have helped Uzbek consumers overcome infrastructure limitations, with domestic schemes like UzCard, HUMO, and bank mobile apps dominating the market. However, many international digital wallets remain unavailable.
Uzbekistan is a member of several international organizations, including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), and the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO).
Historically known for its cotton production during Soviet times, Uzbekistan has experienced significant GDP growth since the mid-2000s. The government aims to transition to a market-oriented economy and achieve the status of an industrialized, high middle-income country by 2050.
In 2016, Uzbekistan underwent its first leadership transition in 27 years following the death of President Islam Karimov. Newly elected President Shavkat Mirziyoyev prioritized liberalizing the business environment, reforming banking, trade, and currency systems, and combating corruption to create a more favourable investment climate.
Although card usage is widespread, Uzbekistan lags behind other Eurasian nations in adopting digital payments due to legacy telecom infrastructure and limited internet access. Over the last decade, policies promoting digitization have accelerated the growth of digital and mobile payment services, including instant payments and cardless transactions directly from bank accounts.
Mobile payments have helped Uzbek consumers overcome infrastructure limitations, with domestic schemes like UzCard, HUMO, and bank mobile apps dominating the market. However, many international digital wallets remain unavailable.
New in 2025:
- The full impact of COVID-19 on digital payments, card payments, e-commerce, and m-commerce by market.
- Real-time payments infrastructure and growth statistics by market.
- Open Banking infrastructure, API roll-out, key players and key initiatives by market.
- Contactless and mobile payments statistics by market.
- Cryptocurrency, stablecoin and CBDC initiatives by market.
- Full update on bank channel digitisation by market.
- Forecasting column added for all major tables.
- Reader-friendly design with enhanced data visualization.
- Industry developments and bank deployments of eID, biometrics and AI.
- The integration of digital challengers and neobanks into the banking infrastructure.
Updates For 2023-24:
- Updated - Bank M&As, restructuring, and market positioning. Customer number KPIs and adoption of digital channel KPIs.
- Updated - Mobile banking apps and digital wallet initiatives.
- Updated - PSPs by individual country.
- Updated - Real-time payments uptake and QR code payments rollout.
- Updated - Card fraud in Europe and by individual country.
- Updated - Non-bank cards and co-brands.
- Highlighting new trends in the payment industry by individual country:
- Contactless, mobile NFC, QR code, mPOS, SoftPOS services.
- Display cards, contactless ATMs, biometric authentication.
- Digital wallets, in-app payments, mobile in-store payments.
- Instant payments.
- eID initiatives.
- Cryptocurrency and CBDC initiatives.
Additional Data:
- Updated tables with card business data 2019-2023; growth rates: Year-over-Year (Y-o-Y), CAGR, and forecasting column for 2024.
- Population, cards per capita, card value per capita.
- Debit cards, credit/delayed debit cards, total cards.
- Card payments by number and value, average transaction value (ATV) per card, payments per card/year.
- ATMs, POS terminals, ATMs/POS terminals per 1 million capita.
- ATM withdrawals by number/value, ATV per withdrawal, transactions per ATM/month.
- POS payments by number/value, ATV per POS payment, transactions per POS/month.
- Internet use, e-payment mix, B2C e-commerce by value and growth rate.
- Issued card brands by major issuer bank.
- Accepted card brands by major acquirer.
- Detailed analysis of debit card and credit card usage.
Methodology
The publisher's research is collated over a year from Primary sources across all European and Eurasian markets. They use the ECB, BIS as well as annual reports from the European banks and listed companies, consulting platforms and major accounting firms along with a combined 100 years of experience in the payments industry analysing and commenting on the data.
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