According to data from the Central Bank of Uzbekistan's pilot financial accessibility index, about half of all bank cards issued in Uzbekistan remain inactive. Meanwhile, residents of the country own an average of 3.2 cards per adult, but only 53 percent of them are actively used.
The regulator noted that access to payment services remains the highest among all assessed financial categories. Approximately 83 percent of adults have a bank card, almost 77 percent use internet banking, and 86.3 percent can make payments via mobile internet.
Despite high access rates, the actual index of payment instrument usage was 34 out of 100, creating a significant gap with the payment access score, which reached 69. The Central Bank explains this discrepancy by stating that the growth in card issuance outpaces their regular use, as no more than slightly over half of all national cards were used in the previous 12 months.
Furthermore, peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers account for 69 percent of total payment operations nationwide, while direct card payments for goods and services occur relatively infrequently.
The Central Bank stated that further increasing the number of issued cards will bring limited benefits to financial inclusion. The regulator intends to shift the focus to developing merchant acquisition infrastructure, expanding scenarios for everyday cashless payments, including utility and retail transactions, and improving the population's digital financial literacy.