Uzbekistan's financial history in the field of digital technologies is entering a more interesting phase, as the country is not starting from scratch. Currently, there is an instant payment system, internal card settlement infrastructure, QR payments, and the topics of fintech, open banking, and inter-account transfer services are actively developing.
In 2024, 47.6 million transactions were processed through the Central Bank's Instant Payment System. Payments made via QR codes exceeded 441.7 billion Uzbek soums. Furthermore, according to the Central Bank's annual report for 2025, about 108,000 QR codes were issued for business entities through the QR-online system, and the volume of QR transactions increased by almost 1.3 times compared to the previous year.
The infrastructure continues to develop: within the fintech strategy for 2026–2030, the Central Bank has identified the national payment gateway, unified QR standards, open banking, and inter-account transfers as priority areas. As of July 1, 2026, a unified structure for accepting UzQR for trade and service enterprises came into force.
These changes are significant, but from a business development perspective, a more important question arises: what should Uzbekistan build on top of this payment infrastructure? A transaction should not be the final point of financial interaction, but rather its beginning.
The Gap to Note
Uzbekistan has a large and economically significant micro, small, and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector. According to World Bank data, SMEs account for over 90% of all enterprises, provide employment for 75% of the population, and contribute approximately 55% of GDP.
Nevertheless, access to financing remains a serious obstacle. The World Bank reports that more than a third of SMEs do not have bank accounts, less than 30% of sales are conducted electronically, and only 10% of small and 16% of medium-sized enterprises report access to loans. It is estimated that the need for SME loans is about $13 billion, with a financing deficit of approximately $6 billion.
These figures should be discussed more frequently alongside the development of digital payments. The possibility is not in assuming that an increase in digital transactions automatically leads to increased lending. This is not the case. The possibility lies in using digital financial activity to reduce one of the persistent barriers to SME financing—limited transparency regarding the actual activities of small businesses.
From Payment Activity to Financial Transparency
For a business receiving most of its income digitally, transaction flows can gradually provide additional information about sales seasonality, revenue stability, and cash flow behavior. However, this information should never become a credit rating in itself. Revenue is not profit, and transaction volume is not repayment ability, and no digital footprint eliminates fraud, economic shocks, or credit risk.
But transaction data can become an additional layer of context alongside financial statements, account history, information from credit bureaus, collateral, where appropriate, and other traditional underwriting inputs. It is important to distinguish these concepts. The right path of development is not 'digital payment to automatic loan,' but 'digital payment to better financial transparency for making more informed financial decisions.'
This direction is already reflected in discussions among Uzbekistani policymakers. In June 2026, the Central Bank, the World Bank, and IFC discussed digital tools in SME lending, partial and portfolio loan guarantees, and improvements in risk assessment systems under the FINGROW program.
Payments Can Become a Distribution Channel
There is a second possibility. The payment infrastructure is not just a mechanism for moving money. As it matures, it can also become an infrastructure for distributing financial services. The relationship with a seller may begin with accepting a QR payment, and over time, this relationship could potentially expand to opening a business account, cash management tools, working capital financing, supplier payments, factoring, insurance, or other services.
This is particularly relevant given Uzbekistan's development of open banking and inter-account transfer capabilities. If regulated financial products can be distributed through digital environments where businesses are already transacting, banks will not need to start every financial interaction inside a branch or even within a traditional banking application. The strategic question then shifts from 'Who processes the payment?' to 'Who can build the most useful financial relationship around the payment?'
A Stronger Proposition for SMEs
Digitalization brings obvious advantages to regulators and financial institutions: more efficient payments, better traceability, and a larger formal financial footprint. However, sustainable adoption also requires a compelling proposition for the business itself. For SMEs, the value of digital payments increases when digitalization ultimately improves access to useful financial services. The seller should hear not just: 'Accept digital payments because the economy is becoming digital.' A stronger statement is: 'Your digital activity can help the financial system better understand your business.'
This better understanding does not guarantee financing, but it can create conditions for more relevant working capital products and deeper banking relationships. Uzbekistan must link fintech experiments to real business problems.
The country's fintech ecosystem has already begun testing ideas that go beyond payments. In March 2026, fintech startups presented solutions to the Central Bank and commercial banks, including digital factoring for small businesses, transaction data analytics, marketplace and logistics tools, card aggregation, and AI-based services. Preliminary agreements to study pilot projects have been reached.
This is encouraging, as the next phase of fintech development should be assessed not only by the number of launched applications, payment methods, or APIs. It should also be assessed by whether the new infrastructure solves costly business problems: access to working capital, slow supplier payments, fragmented financial information, weak cash flow visibility, and expensive distribution of financial products. In this sense, digital factoring is a particularly interesting example, as it links payments, accounts receivable, business data, and financing around a real operational need, rather than viewing fintech as an isolated technological layer.
One must not confuse good data with easier credit. Necessary caution exists. The global fintech discussion often moves too quickly from 'more data' to 'more lending.' Uzbekistan should avoid this simplistic path. A recent cross-country World Bank study found a strong link between firms receiving electronic payments and reduced credit restrictions, especially where there are large information gaps. However, the authors themselves are cautious about causality.
The practical lesson is not that payment data proves creditworthiness. It is that digital payments can create information that did not previously exist in a usable form. Thus, the goal should be to improve underwriting, not weaken it; to achieve better distribution, not unlimited lending; and to promote financial inclusion that is commercially sustainable for both the business and the lender.
From payment infrastructure to productive financial infrastructure. Uzbekistan is currently collecting several important layers simultaneously: instant payments, unified QR acceptance, internal payment infrastructure, open banking discussions, inter-account transfer services, fintech pilots, and new SME financing mechanisms. The great opportunity lies in these layers reinforcing each other. Alongside transaction volume, QR adoption, and digital payment uptake, attention should be paid to another set of indicators: how many digital SMEs gain access to formal financing; how many businesses adopt additional financial services after starting with payments; does digital activity reduce underwriting time and cost; and are working capital products becoming more relevant to real cash flow models?
This is not statistics currently published in a single national panel. These are proposed metrics for another question: does the digitization of payments improve the financial capabilities of Uzbek enterprises? If the answer increasingly becomes positive, Uzbekistan will achieve something more than just a more modern payment system. It will begin transforming the digital payment infrastructure into a productive financial infrastructure.