Photo: Amir Atadjanov / Gazeta
Apple Pay began rolling out in Uzbekistan on 27 October. Google announced the launch of Google Pay on 19 October, but adding cards issued by Uzbekistan banks became possible also on 27 October.
Apple Pay began rolling out in Uzbekistan on 27 October, with eight local banks and fintech services appearing in Apple Wallet as options for adding cards.
Google officially announced the launch of Google Pay on 19 October, but users also began adding cards issued by local banks to the service also on 27 October. Cards from nine banks are currently supported.
Apple Pay
Apple’s list includes the following banks and payment services:
Uzum Bank — Visa;
Orient Finans Bank — Visa and Mastercard;
NBU — Visa and Mastercard;
Kapitalbank — Visa and Mastercard;
Hamkorbank — Visa;
Ipak Yuli Bank — Visa and Mastercard;
TBC Bank — Visa and Mastercard;
Octobank — Visa and Mastercard.
Apple noted that some banks may not support all card types. The list will be updated as more banks join the service.
Google Pay
Google lists Uzbekistan among the countries where Google Wallet, contactless payments and the web version of the digital wallet are available. Users can make contactless payments using Android smartphones, smartwatches running Wear OS and compatible Fitbit devices.
The payment service supports cards issued by nine banks so far:
AVO Bank — Mastercard;
Octobank — Visa and Mastercard;
Uzum Bank — Visa;
TBC Bank — Visa and Mastercard;
Aloqabank — Visa and Mastercard;
Kapitalbank — Visa and Mastercard;
Ipak Yuli Bank — Visa and Mastercard;
NBU — Visa and Mastercard;
Orient Finans Bank — Visa and Mastercard.
On 19 October, Google Cloud’s government affairs and public policy lead for Central and Eastern Europe Marcin Krasuski announced the launch of Google Pay in Uzbekistan at a digital technology event in Samarkand held as part of meetings between Central Asian countries and the United States in the C5+1 format.
Preparations for the launch of international payment services accelerated after changes were made to personal data legislation. On 26 March, president Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a law allowing certain personal data of citizens of Uzbekistan to be stored and processed abroad, subject to specific conditions. The requirement to store biometric and genetic data, as well as data on users of local telecommunications services, within Uzbekistan remains in force.
In July, the Central Bank said that technical preparations were underway for the launch of Apple Pay and Google Pay. Banks were also working on card tokenization to enable users to add not only international Visa and Mastercard cards but also domestic HUMO and Uzcard cards to the services.
