Starting January 1, 2027, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan will take control of installment operators. Retailers and specialized companies will have to join the regulator’s registry, check clients’ debt loads, and transmit data to credit bureaus.
The president signed the corresponding decree on August 14, Spot.uz reports. The document aims to bring a massive layer of consumer obligations out of the shadows, which are currently excluded from official statistics and distort bank credit scoring.
Finteqstan previously wrote about how the Central Bank of Uzbekistan is building infrastructure for the fintech market; now the regulator is moving to strictly control one of its largest and most opaque segments.
New product limits
The Central Bank will regulate the sector and maintain the registry of installment operators. Companies already issuing goods on credit must join this list if their quarterly turnover exceeds 500 million soums and installment sales account for at least 50% of their business.
Registry participants face strict limits:
- the maximum installment contract term is capped at 12 months;
- the cost of the goods cannot exceed 250 basic calculation values (BRV);
- the total amount of all fines and penalties must not exceed 50% of the annual payment.
Operators are explicitly banned from issuing classic cash loans or attracting public funds as deposits. Companies will be required to conduct online client verification for remote sales and regularly transmit data on issued installments to credit bureaus.
Two markets and hidden debt load
The regulation comes amid a rapid rise in debt. According to the Central Bank, over the past six years, Uzbeks’ debts to banks have grown more than fivefold, reaching 231 trillion soums. Credit obligations are held by 73% of surveyed citizens.
The real picture is more complex. Ulugbek Tavakkalov, advisor to the chairman of the supervisory board at Universal Bank, notes that two parallel installment markets currently exist in Uzbekistan.
The first market is regulated. Banks and microfinance organizations (MFOs) operate here. Their procedures comply with Central Bank requirements, transactions are recorded in credit bureaus, and official statistics track them.
The second market is unregulated. This includes retail chains and specially created legal entities. They are not currently required to assess a buyer’s debt load, and the issued installments sit on their balance sheets as ordinary accounts receivable. These debts are invisible to credit bureaus.
This distorts the bank scoring system. When issuing a new loan, a bank cannot see that the client is already burdened with several installment plans for home appliances or smartphones. The new rules will consolidate this data and reveal the true scale of the population’s debt load.
The psychology of debt and automated oversight
For consumers, the word “installment” sounds psychologically much lighter than “credit.” Otabek Aliaskarov, a member of the Fintech Association’s expert council, emphasizes that people often only see a small monthly payment and fail to evaluate the full cost of the obligations. The decree limits hidden fees and fines, making the final overpayment transparent.
For business, moving into a regulated field means complicating processes. Retailers will have to implement full-fledged credit scoring and calculate the debt burden ratio before approving an application.
The reform’s success will depend on the quality of supervision. There are relatively few banks and MFOs in the country, while potential installment operators could number over a thousand. Manual control of so many players is impossible—the Central Bank will need automated data exchange and a risk-oriented approach.
What comes next
In the short term, getting an in-store installment plan will become harder. Checking credit history and calculating debt load will inevitably lower the application approval rate.
Mandatory accounting of all debts will cool consumer demand momentarily, but it will protect the banking sector from uncontrolled defaults on hidden loans.
Over the next two to three years, experts expect market consolidation. Small companies will not be able to afford the costs of compliance, integration with credit bureaus, and meeting the Central Bank’s prudential standards. Large players with established processes will strengthen their positions, secure cheaper funding, and offer clearer financial products.