Technically, this is a major migration: from January 25, 2027, person-to-person transfers will go through the central bank’s switch rather than foreign processors. Banks connect to settlement directly, payment institutions through a servicing bank.
Less than three months remain before launch, and no transition period has been announced yet. So the sequence is: specifications, connection tests, and only then traffic migration, most likely in stages.
Our research: payments and transfers in Uzbekistan
Key points
From 25 January 2027, all transfers and payments between individuals in Uzbekistan will go through the Central Bank’s unified payment infrastructure instead of foreign processing centres. Podrobno.uz reports this, citing a resolution of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan’s board dated 23 October 2026, which approved the regulation on the unified payment switch. The text of the resolution could not yet be found on the regulator’s website, so the details are given as reported by the outlet.
Currently, some person-to-person transfers in Uzbekistan are processed by foreign processing centres. The new system is meant to bring the various payment data channels together into a single infrastructure managed by the Central Bank.
The switch will handle authorisation requests, payment messages and interbank settlements in the national currency using bank cards and e-money. The system will operate 24/7.
According to the outlet, one of the goals of the reform is to process domestically some transactions on international bank cards that currently go through foreign processors. The Central Bank expects this to make transfers more reliable and strengthen the resilience of the national payment infrastructure.
