On October 15, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan hosted a discussion on card-to-card transfer fees. According to Kun.uz, tariffs were the main topic: payment service Click considers zero bank fees to be dumping, while lenders defend their pricing policies.
Different business models
The parties’ positions diverged sharply due to differences in revenue structure. According to official tariffs, Click currently charges a 1.1% fee on transfers between cards of any Uzbekistan banks. Many commercial banks in the country have introduced zero fees for similar operations within their mobile apps.
Click founder and CEO Ulugbek Rustamov stated at the roundtable that a zero fee for the client does not mean zero costs for the provider. He said a bank, a processing center, and a payment organization participate in a P2P transfer, and the operation’s cost is about 0.5%.
Rustamov called the banks’ actions dumping. He emphasized that lenders can afford to zero out tariffs by covering costs with other income and using client funds in accounts as a resource. For a payment organization, the fee is the only source of income. Click also provides free limits: new clients can transfer up to 3 million soums per month without a fee, and transfers between e-wallets within the service are always free.
Position of banks and the market
Bank representatives confirmed they do not view P2P transfers as a direct revenue tool.
- Xalq banki explained that transfers between the bank’s cards up to 10 million soums per month are free. For other directions, the tariff is 0.25–0.6%, and in some cases, 0.6% only covers the bank’s own costs.
- Milliy bank disclosed its tariff structure: out of the standard 0.5%, an average of 0.25% goes to payment systems, and the rest goes to app support and security.
- A TBC representative reported that transfers from a Salom card via the bank’s app are fee-free, as the bank subsidizes them itself.
Economist Otabek Bakirov noted during the discussion that questions about transfer costs should also be directed to the Uzcard and Humo payment systems, whose tariffs have increased. Both Bakirov and Rustamov agreed that the Central Bank should not directly regulate tariffs, but the regulator should change market incentives.
Scale of the problem for fintech
For Click, the tariff issue is directly tied to retaining market share. According to data previously disclosed by Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank while preparing for a deal, the Uzbekistan service’s client base exceeds 20 million people, and its share of the mobile payment market is estimated at over 38%.
Consolidation processes are already underway against this backdrop, though they face delays. In July 2025, Halyk Bank signed an agreement to buy a 49% stake in Click for $176.4 million. By the end of 2025, the transaction documentation expired, and the deal was not completed.
Why it matters
The situation illustrates the structural tension between traditional lenders and independent payment operators.
The expansion of free bank transfers directly pressures the transaction revenue of mono-product fintech companies.
Users choose the zero tariff, forcing payment services to seek new monetization methods. Finteqstan previously reported that Click focused on popularizing daily cashless payments, but competing with free bank transfers without the ability to cross-subsidize is becoming increasingly difficult.
