The Central Bank of Uzbekistan canceled the introduction of restrictions on foreign currency transactions for banks and companies

Local publication Gazeta.uz, citing sources in the banking sector, reported that foreign currency transactions of companies will be carried out only through banks in which they have a main account, for them the conversion will also be carried out through a bank .

Banks also wanted to be prohibited from transferring domestic currency funds from customers’ primary accounts to their secondary accounts located at other banks for currency conversion.

Entrepreneurs would have to close their special accounts in other banks and have only one account. Therefore, the conversion was carried out only through a bank.

The next day, at a press conference, the president of the local Central Bank, Mamarizo Nurmuratov, announced the annulment of the decision taken on September 15.

“The decision taken the day before by the bank committee caused heated discussions. The most important thing is that we did not see positive opinions about this decision,” he said.

• At the beginning of September 2023, all international transfers and payments for foreign services were suspended as of September 5 by the Oson and PayWay payment systems. The companies explain the decision at the request of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan. The regulator then stated that the republic does not impose restrictions on international transfers and payments, including payments for foreign online services. For this, the regulator proposed using commercial banks.
• Qiwi Uzbekistan subsequently suspended international transfers, including to Russian service cards and wallets, at the request of the local Central Bank. The payments company sent a request to the Republican regulator several weeks ago, but never received a response.