The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has submitted a draft presidential decree for public discussion to create a Currency and Interest Rate Risk Management Company—a joint-stock company intended to operate the country’s derivatives market. According to Spot.uz, the discussion will run until October 15, 2026. The direct text of the draft is not yet publicly available on the regulation.gov.uz portal or the Central Bank’s website, so all details below are based on the publication’s summary.
What the draft proposes
The proposal suggests establishing the company as a joint-stock company. Its stated tasks include developing the financial derivatives market, expanding business capabilities for currency risk management, and protecting large enterprises with 50% or more state ownership from currency and interest rate risks on their debt obligations.
The draft grants the company a broad set of powers. It will be able to execute derivative transactions with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, banks, international financial institutions, and companies, participate in interbank money market operations, and buy and sell foreign currency on exchange and over-the-counter markets. It also includes the right to raise funds from domestic and international capital markets by issuing securities and to obtain a credit rating from international agencies.
A separate clause allows the company to engage an international vendor organization to execute derivative transactions, settle them, and store transaction data, as well as to place free funds in domestic and foreign financial assets and open accounts abroad. The draft also involves introducing modern tools for derivative operations with the participation of foreign experts.
Beyond executing trades, the company will have to support market liquidity by providing continuous derivative quotes on the domestic currency and money markets and ensure that domestic hedging prices do not diverge from international ones.
Why state-owned companies need this
One of the stated goals is to protect enterprises with 50% or more state ownership from currency and interest rate risks. These companies often take out foreign currency loans, and exchange rate or interest rate fluctuations directly impact their debt burden.
The draft goes beyond simply creating a tool: it proposes that the Ministry of Economy and Finance mandate a currency and interest rate risk management strategy when approving the financial plans of large enterprises with 50% or more state ownership. This changes the operational procedure itself: having such a strategy will become a condition for approving a financial plan, rather than a voluntary practice.
Capital and money
To form the company’s authorized capital, the proposal suggests allocating 170 billion soums within three months to the authorized capital of the National Clearing Centre JSC, an existing structure through which the new organization is planned to be capitalized.
Separately, the draft sets the minimum authorized capital for organizations of this profile at 500 billion soums. This is nearly three times the stated initial contribution of the company itself.
What the Central Bank and Ministry of Finance must do
The draft tasks the Central Bank with developing supervisory rules for currency and interest rate risk management organizations by October 1, 2027, taking foreign experience into account. It also requires adapting banks’ prudential requirements for derivative operations to Basel Committee standards and organizing training programs for market participants with international experts.
What’s next
The draft decree is currently under public discussion, which will end on October 15, 2026. The final text of the document, the shareholder structure of the future company, its exact name, and its status relative to the National Clearing Centre JSC (an independent legal entity or a subsidiary) have not yet been disclosed.