Central Bank sets temporary limit on bank cards per customer

This regulation is specifically intended for the service sector and will be enforced by commercial banks, with the rules set to be effective from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2025.

In late November, the Central Bank announced its plans to limit the number of cards issued to each individual. The move is aimed at preventing fraudulent activities related to cards and reducing the use of personal bank accounts and cards in financial fraud schemes, as explained by the Central Bank.

At the time, it was reported that nearly 97% of bank cardholders (22 million people) had five or fewer cards, while 3% (770,000 people) held between 5 and 20 cards. Only 0.03%, or 7,000 people, had registered more than 20 cards.

An analysis of the large number of cards issued in individuals’ names revealed that some of these cards — often without the owners’ knowledge — were being used for fraudulent activities, according to the Central Bank.

As of November 1, 2023, more than 54.9 million bank cards were in circulation in Uzbekistan, with this number rising to 56.9 million by early December. This means that, on average, every person in Uzbekistan holds 1.5 cards, or each working-age individual holds 2.9 cards (based on a working-age population of 19.58 million).

For comparison, by the end of September, Kazakhstan had issued 80 million payment cards, averaging 4 cards per person (in a population of 20.2 million). In Kyrgyzstan, the number of payment cards stood at 8.55 million, averaging 1.2 cards per person.