TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 5. Payment system operators and payment organizations in Uzbekistan will be created and operated only as joint-stock companies starting July 1, 2024, Trend reports.
Citing the data from Uzbekistan's Ministry of Justice, the minimum amount of permissible capital for payment system operators and payment businesses will be:
Operators of payment systems: 50 billion soums ($4 million).
Organizations for payment: 10 billion soums ($811,166)
Furthermore, beginning July 1, 2025, the permissible capital for payment organizations will be raised to 20 billion soums ($1.6 million).
According to the ministry, in order to prevent theft and fraud, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan will be authorized to send mandatory instructions to commercial banks, payment system operators, and payment organizations restricting the use of bank cards, bank accounts, and accounts on mobile applications for up to three days in the event of questionable bank card transactions.
Meanwhile, Uzbekistan will introduce anti-fraud systems for monitoring and preventing fraudulent transactions in banks and payment systems in 2024-2025.
The new project calls for the implementation of biometric identification of clients at the Central Bank, as well as the implementation of a system for identifying data in these financial institutions using SIM cards and the IMEI code of a mobile device.