TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, February 25. Uzbekistan will tighten requirements for banks to issue loans to the population starting July 1, Trend reports.
The resolution was signed by Uzbekistan's Central Bank Chairman Mamarizo Nurmuratov on February 21.
The bank introduces a debt burden indicator for the population, which is calculated through the ratio of average loan payments to the average monthly income of the borrower.
Currently, in Uzbekistan, the debt burden requirement is applied only to microloans and amounts to 50 percent. Starting July 1, 2024, lenders will be obliged to ensure that the debt load of their clients does not exceed 60 percent when issuing all loans (including microloans). That is, banks will deny loans if the borrower spends 60 percent of his income on loan repayments (borrowers spent an average of 69 percent of their income on car loans and 46 percent on mortgages in the first half of 2023). This indicator will be reduced to 50 percent as of January 1, 2025.
At the same time, there will be exceptions to the debt load. In particular, the bank will be able to allocate loans (microloans) without taking into account the debt load of the borrower up to 15 percent of its loan portfolio.
By introducing the calculation of the debt load in the context of all loans, the regulator intends to achieve the legalization of household income, encourage lending to borrowers who have legalized their income, formalize the assessment of informal income, and attract banks to responsible lending.
Meanwhile, Uzbek commercial banks' assets amounted to 652.1 trillion soums ($52.9 billion) as of January 1, 2024.
The data from the Central Bank of Uzbekistan shows that the real growth of assets totaled 12 percent year-on-year.