Apple and Google Enter Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has opened its payments market a little wider, and the useful number is eight versus nine. Apple Pay has launched with eligible Visa and Mastercard cards from eight local banks and financial institutions, while Google Pay starts with cards from nine, according to Euronews and the Central Bank of Uzbekistan.

That is not a revolution. Uzbek consumers already had domestic contactless options through HUMO Pay, UZCARD PAY and QR-code systems. The change is narrower and more concrete: people with supported locally issued cards can now use the two global wallet platforms instead of staying inside domestic rails and apps. In payments, convenience often looks trivial right up until customers begin expecting it everywhere.

The timing matters because this is not simply Apple and Google deciding Uzbekistan looked lonely on the map. Euronews reported that the rollout follows amendments to Uzbekistan’s personal data law in March 2026 that eased some restrictions on processing and storing certain categories of personal data outside the country. Regulation, as ever, was the gatekeeper. Big technology companies like to talk about seamless user experience; central banks tend to ask where the data lives.

Saida Mirziyoyeva, head of the presidential administration, announced the availability of both services for locally issued cards on 27 October, after discussions in September with Google vice president Karan Bhatia in New York about technology cooperation and the conditions for international payment services to operate in the country, Euronews reported. She linked the legal changes directly to broader access to international payment systems. That does not prove the meeting caused the launch, but it does show the government wanted the policy shift understood as part of a wider opening.

The initial bank list also says something about where this market stands. Apple Pay supports cards from Uzum Bank, Orient Finans Bank, the National Bank of Uzbekistan, Kapitalbank, Hamkorbank, Ipak Yuli Bank, TBC Bank and Octobank. Uzum Bank and Hamkorbank currently support Visa only. Google Pay supports cards from AVO Bank, Octobank, Uzum Bank, TBC Bank, Aloqabank, Kapitalbank, Ipak Yuli Bank, the National Bank of Uzbekistan and Orient Finans Bank.

Those rosters are broad enough to matter, but not broad enough to pretend the job is finished. The Central Bank told Euronews that work is under way to extend the services to cards issued through the domestic Uzcard and HUMO networks. No timetable was given. That omission matters more than the launch graphics. Until domestic-network cards are fully integrated, access remains meaningful but partial.

The central bank also said card information is protected during transactions and that cashback or other customer benefits depend on each bank’s own terms. That is a dry detail, which is usually where the real economics hide. A wallet launch can expand payment choice, but whether it changes consumer behavior depends on which cards work, which incentives stay intact and whether merchants actually see enough demand to care.

The broader policy frame is Uzbekistan’s National Fintech Strategy for 2026–2030, approved by the central bank in September, which includes plans for cross-border payments, open banking and stronger links between financial systems, Euronews reported. Apple Pay and Google Pay are best read as infrastructure access, not as proof that every promised reform will arrive on schedule. Still, for a market that already had domestic digital payment tools, the state has chosen interoperability over insulation. In finance, that is usually the more interesting choice.