May 17, 2024

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The official logo of the company. (BC Card)

BC Card announced Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Uzbekistan’s state-run payment network operator National Interbank Processing Center to establish a payment network connecting the two countries.

The signing event was held earlier in the day at the Central Bank of Uzbekistan in Tashkent, with BC Card CEO Choi Won-seok and NIPC Shukratbek Kurbanov CEO, in attendance.

The latest deal marks the company’s third business expansion into Central Asian countries after Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan this year, expanding the coverage of its payment network to over 50 percent of the region.

Under the agreement, the two companies plan to develop an overseas remittance service and eco-friendly eco-payment system while also enhancing Uzbekistan’s payment system through the implementation of contactless payment technologies such as the QR code payment.

The latest partnership aligns with the Digital Uzbekistan 2030 Strategy, a government-led initiative that aims to foster the growth of the country's technology and financial sectors.

The fintech industry in the country has enjoyed the highest growth rate since 2017.

As of May, the number of people using digital payments and mobile banking stands at 35.6 million, a 62 percent jump from 22 million in 2022. Meanwhile, the number of credit and debit cards issued by the country’s 30 commercial banks increased by 29 percent to 36.5 million this year from 28.3 million in 2022.

However, a surge in card usage was not accompanied by the expansion of the corresponding payment infrastructure. The total number of payment terminals, including ATMs and kiosks, only reached 450,000 in 2022, up just 1.8 percent from 2021.

"Uzbekistan is a country that has recorded outstanding growth in the overall financial industry, including mobile payments, digital currencies, and virtual assets, even during the pandemic period,” CEO Choi stated at the signing ceremony.

"BC Card will actively support the enhancement of the payment system in Uzbekistan while also ramping up our efforts to expand into other '-stan' countries."

By Song Jung-hyun (junghyun792@heraldcorp.com)