A regional meeting of central bank representatives from five countries took place in Dushanbe on October 22–23, 2026. Participants agreed to develop a mechanism for interoperability between national QR payment platforms by the end of the year, Spot.uz reports, citing data from the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
Representatives from the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the National Bank of Kyrgyzstan, the National Bank of Tajikistan, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, and the Central Bank of Azerbaijan took part in the discussions.
Once the integration is set up, citizens of these countries will be able to pay for purchases and transfer money via QR code using their bank’s app while traveling. Specific launch dates for cross-border QR payments have not yet been announced.
At the meeting, the National Bank of Kazakhstan also presented the results of its work on digital financial infrastructure, including the digital tenge, open banking, and the National Anti-Fraud Center. The development of cross-border services runs parallel to local system upgrades: earlier, Uzbekistan announced the launch of a unified payment infrastructure for peer-to-peer transfers.