The key facts
- Apple Pay may go live in Uzbekistan on October 27 — according to sources speaking to Spot
- Google officially announced the launch of Google Pay on October 19 in Samarkand
- Banks are preparing tokenization of Humo and Uzcard cards, not only Visa and Mastercard
Apple Pay launch expected by the end of October
The Apple Pay payment service may start operating in Uzbekistan by the end of October. According to several sources familiar with the matter speaking to Spot, October 27 has been named as the preliminary launch date. According to the outlet's interlocutors, Apple intends to launch the service simultaneously at several banks, and some market participants have already completed technical preparations.
Google Pay officially announced on October 19
On October 19, Google announced the launch of the Google Pay payment service in Uzbekistan. This was stated by Marcin Krasuski, Director of Public Sector and Government Policy for Google Cloud in Central and Eastern Europe, during the 'Digital Technologies' panel session in Samarkand as part of events in the C5+1 format between the Central Asian countries and the United States. 'I am very pleased to announce today that Google is launching the GPay service — Google Pay — in Uzbekistan,' he said.
Background: negotiations and legislative changes
At the end of July, Djamshid Usmanov, head of the payment systems development department at the Central Bank, told Spot in an interview that Apple Pay and Google Pay could launch in Uzbekistan in the coming months. After changes to the personal data legislation, the Central Bank, together with commercial banks, Humo and Uzcard, began negotiations with Apple and Google and work on the technical integration of the services. Banks were also working on card tokenization to ensure support not only for Visa and Mastercard, but also for the national payment systems Humo and Uzcard.
Personal data law
On March 26, the President of Uzbekistan signed a law abolishing the mandatory requirement to store all personal data on servers within the country. The requirement remains in place for biometric and genetic data, as well as data of subscribers of telecommunications operators. Other personal data may be processed abroad provided the established conditions are met.
