Uzbekistan’s payment services are incentivizing identification: Paynet has offered cashback for completing KYC.
Details
According to the service's announcement, in-app verification takes a few minutes. Users must enter their passport or PINFL data and confirm their identity with a selfie. Once residency status is verified, cashback is credited for the next payment.
The main goal of the procedure is to remove system restrictions. Anonymous e-wallets face strict transaction limits. After KYC, clients gain access to high-margin products: direct transfers to international cards, buying and selling crypto assets, gold transactions, and debt checks.
Country and market
Paynet remains one of Uzbekistan’s oldest infrastructure players, operating in the market since 2005. The company’s scale is visible at the state level: the service previously entered the country's top five taxpayers in the services sector. The company is now transforming from a traditional payment acceptance network into a full-fledged financial app, where anonymous transactions give way to personalized services.
Why it matters
Central Asian payment systems face constant pressure from regulators, who limit the capabilities of unidentified e-wallets. Without KYC, a client cannot use complex financial products, and anonymous transactions create high compliance risks for the service itself.
Directly purchasing verification through a bonus means the cost of acquiring an identified client pays off through their engagement in the ecosystem and a reduced load on anti-fraud monitoring.
What’s next
Other market players will likely start introducing direct financial incentives to move clients from the “gray” zone into fully verified status. Competition for users is shifting from basic onboarding to increasing the frequency of complex product usage within a single app.
