Starting January 1, 2027, Uzbekistan’s BNPL (buy now, pay later) market will fall under the direct supervision of the Central Bank. A presidential decree requires operators to register in a special registry, check clients’ debt loads, and separate markups from the base cost of goods.
What happened
Uzbekistan has approved a new regulatory framework for installment services. According to the specialized Telegram channel uzbekfintech, the document establishes a unified legal status for companies providing goods on installment.
The new requirements apply to specialized fintech services and regular retail companies. Retailers will fall under regulation if their quarterly turnover exceeds 500 million soums and installment sales account for more than half of their total volume.
Under the decree, operators must conduct digital client identification and factor in their current debt load before approving a limit.
Limits and price transparency
The rules strictly fix the parameters of available products. The maximum installment purchase amount is capped at 250 basic calculating values (BRV), and the maximum repayment period is 12 months. Selling real estate through such mechanisms is now expressly prohibited.
A separate block of changes targets pricing. Sellers can no longer bake commissions into the final price tag. Markups must be listed separately from the base cost of the item. The total amount of fines, penalties, and additional payments for the year is capped at half of the principal debt.
Citizens gain the right to pay off installments early without penalties. Data on small purchases under 3 BRV is exempt from mandatory reporting to credit bureaus.
Installment operators are banned from issuing classic consumer loans and raising money from citizens. Problem debt can only be transferred to banks, microfinance organizations, or other legal operators from the Central Bank registry.
Country and market
Installment payment services have become a mass consumption tool in Uzbekistan, but until now, this segment developed in a regulatory gray area. This created risks of over-indebtedness through hidden interest and placed fintech players on unequal footing with classic retailers.
Finteqstan previously reported that Uzbekistan tightened bank control over large cash transactions; now the supervisory focus is shifting to the mass retail segment.
Why it matters
Introducing the registry means installments are officially recognized as a financial instrument. The regulator is cutting unorganized players out of the market and forcing BNPL services to rebuild their scoring to meet banking standards.
This will require companies to incur additional compliance costs and integrate with government databases for client verification.
What’s next
Market participants have been given more than two years to adapt—the rules will only take effect in 2027. During this time, large retail chains and fintech companies will have to separate business processes, update IT infrastructure for data transfer, and revise product economics to account for the new limits on penalties and markups.
