Uzbekistan's Payments Market: The Year the Regulator Set the Rules

In Brief

Between July 2025 and July 2026, Uzbekistan’s payments market began operating under new rules. Previously, payment services competed on user acquisition numbers. Today, competition centers on monetization per user. The defining market moves were executed not by commercial players, but by the regulator: mandatory identity verification, antitrust conditions, regulatory deal approvals, and a standardized national QR code reshaped the landscape for all market participants. The impact is clearly visible in the financial results of the two leading super-apps, Payme and Click.

	Payme (TBC Ecosystem)	Click
Net Profit (9M 2025)	287B UZS (+54% YoY)	236B UZS (+31% YoY)
Registered Users	~23M (TBC Ecosystem total)	23M+
Key Strategic Focus	Subscriptions and BNPL	Reach and Super-App ecosystem

Net profit data: Frank.uz payment organization comparison for 9M 2025. Paynet leads total absolute profit (330B UZS) via its terminal network; below we focus on consumer-facing super-apps.

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Payme: Maximizing Revenue Per Customer

Payme’s net profit for the first 9 months of 2025 surpassed its total earnings for the entire previous year. Growth was driven not by user base expansion, but by deeper monetization of existing users:

• Subscriptions. Subscribers transact 2–3 times more frequently than standard users, with subscriber counts expanding substantially over the year (TBC earnings call).
• BNPL / Installments. Rapidly built a large active user base.
• TBC Ecosystem Synergies. According to TBC’s 2025 financial disclosures, its ecosystem accounts for roughly one-fifth of total national transaction volume.

At the same time, top-line monthly active user (MAU) growth moderated. On investor calls, management described MAU growth as “flat,” citing the impact of mandatory national identity verification regulations: TBC’s ecosystem active user base stands at ~6M with limited net expansion.

Additionally, as a market leader, Payme faced regulatory constraints. Approval for acquiring a neighboring platform was granted only on the condition that its payment rails remain open to all market participants rather than closed within TBC’s proprietary system.

Click: Doubling Down on Reach

Click reported a broader registration footprint (23M+ users) and focused on expanding its super-app functionality (mini-apps, AI assistant, tier-based subscriptions). Key developments of the year:

• M&A Deal Cancellation. Click’s proposed landmark equity sale to Kazakhstan’s Halyk Group, designed to secure bank integration, was abandoned. Per Spot.uz and Kursiv, regulatory approvals from antitrust authorities stalled past contractual deadlines, causing documentation to expire. Halyk subsequently redirected capital to acquire payment operator re:Kassa.
• Profit Growth of +31%: Lagging Payme’s trajectory.
• No In-House Credit Product. Click ended the year without a proprietary lending engine. Credit and installment offerings proved to be the primary profit drivers for competitors: according to KPMG, two-thirds of the country’s BNPL market is controlled by Uzum Nasiya and Alif Nasiya (KPMG via Spot.uz).

Industry-Wide Catalyst: The Unified National QR Code

On July 1, 2026, Uzbekistan mandated a unified national QR code standard for merchants (merchant fee capped at 0.65%). The unified QR allows payments from any banking application. Historically, providers maintained proprietary QR networks to capture merchant acquiring fees. This structural advantage has now diluted across the industry.

The Central Bank clarified that the national QR standard does not ban commercial QR codes. However, initial implementation led some retail locations to remove proprietary QR displays in favor of the national standard. Notably, the unified QR currently processes only local UZCARD and HUMO payment networks; international Visa and Mastercard transactions are not supported.

Market Implications

Market competition has shifted from account growth to unit monetization through subscriptions, credit products, and value-added merchant services. Payme prioritized user depth, achieving superior profit momentum, whereas Click prioritized broad user reach.

Looking at markets that underwent similar transformations, both strategies face structural headwinds. Our core thesis is straightforward: payment processing itself ceases to be a profitable standalone business. Profitability shifts to services built around payments. This pattern recurred in every market where central authorities deployed sovereign payment infrastructure: India eliminated merchant discount rates (MDR) for UPI by law in 2020; Brazil capped Pix merchant fees at ~0.2%; Russia’s SBP operates at 0.4–0.7% versus 1.5–2.5% for standard card interchange. Uzbekistan’s unified QR fee of 0.65% marks the start of this trajectory, where fee margins trend downwards over time. Revenue does not disappear, it migrates from processing fees into lending, subscription models, and merchant software services.

Three Proven Playbooks from Maturing Markets

1. Credit Overlay on Zero-Fee Payments (The Most Proven Model). After losing 35% of its payment revenue, India’s Paytm achieved profitability by expanding merchant credit and financial services. At Brazil’s Nubank, over 40% of credit card holders finance transactions over free Pix rails using credit lines, generating twice the net interest margin of standard card transactions (Euromoney). In Uzbekistan, established BNPL players possess immediate advantages due to pre-built underwriting engines.

2. Merchant Software Subscriptions. Paytm deployed audio-enabled POS hardware (“Soundboxes”) that announce incoming payments audibly, eliminating manual verification by store clerks. The hardware operates on a monthly subscription (~₹100/month), scaling to 13.7M paying merchants at ~40% gross margin. This innovation was replicated by Google Pay and PhonePe. Brazil’s StoneCo converted merchant transaction flows into $1.6B in deposits and working capital loans. As acquiring margins compressed, total revenue per merchant increased.

3. Superior UX Layer over Sovereign Infrastructure. Nubank developed the market’s leading user experience for Brazil’s Pix system, converting 60% of its user base into primary bank relationships. Conversely, attempting to build private alternatives to state payment rails has proven ineffective: in Russia, a consortium of top banks attempted to launch a private alternative to the national QR code, losing market share to regulatory infrastructure within 18 months. Building on top of sovereign rails yields higher adoption than competing against them.

Conclusion: Regulatory intervention has become the single largest strategic factor in fintech. It cannot be solved through product features alone, but requires strategic repositioning. Key market shifts, identity verification, antitrust constraints, M&A approvals, and unified QR standards, originate from regulatory policies. Companies that transition early from defending transaction fees to monetizing services built on top of state rails will capture market leadership over the next three-year cycle.

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Methodology: Exclusively Open Sources

This analysis relies entirely on public disclosures: quarterly financial reports of payment operators, press coverage, investor calls, and regulatory publications. We analyze client market dynamics prior to initial discussions, entering briefings with structured insights rather than discovery questions.

Sources: Frank.uz (9M 2025 payment organization profits), TBC Bank Group 2025 disclosures (MAU and transaction share), Spot.uz and Kursiv (Click–Halyk transaction status, 2025–2026), Gazeta.uz (Unified QR launch, fee schedule, Central Bank statements, 2026), Kun.uz. BNPL market shares: KPMG via Spot.uz. International benchmarks: RBI Annual Report 2024-25 and NPCI (India UPI MDR rules), Paytm and PhonePe FY25-26 filings, Matera (Pix analytics), Euromoney (Pix credit economics), StoneCo financial disclosures, Central Bank of Russia (SBP statistics), Interfax (NSPK unified QR).