TBC Uzbekistan’s headquarters, located just east of Tashkent’s rapidly changing city centre, has the feel of a well-funded technology startup, staffed by a young workforce that mirrors the demographic profile of the country it serves. In 2025, the bank translated this energy into execution, combining rapid growth, product expansion and deepened customer engagement to consolidate its position as Central Asia’s best digital bank.
At the core of its model is a deliberately constructed two-sided ecosystem connecting consumers and businesses through a single digital platform. Built on a proprietary technology stack with fully in-house capabilities, the bank operates end to end as a digital institution, enabling consistent execution across payments, lending and daily banking. This architecture supports a data-driven and increasingly AI-enabled operating model, allowing the bank to deliver services with speed, precision and scalability.
“What we have is a fully digital bank, not just a digital front end,” says CFO Sharof Sharipov. “Our entire technology stack is built in-house, which drives lower acquisition and servicing costs.”
We embedded BNPL directly into the payments app. It’s literally a toggle at checkout; what we call the fastest loan in the world
Nika Kurdiani
The progress achieved in 2025 reflects disciplined execution of this strategy. The bank expanded both depth and breadth of its ecosystem, adding new products including business daily banking, credit cards, BNPL, insurance and subscription-based services, while also strengthening core capabilities in payments and lending. This product sequencing is central to how TBC Uzbekistan creates engagement, increasing the number of services used per customer and reinforcing its position as a primary financial interface.
Scale is where this model becomes particularly compelling. By the end of 2025, TBC Uzbekistan had reached 23 million registered users, up 4.6 million year-on-year, with around six million monthly active users, making it one of the most widely used digital platforms in Uzbekistan.
Payments activity expanded rapidly, with Payme and TBC Bank volumes reaching $9.2 billion during the year and capturing roughly 20% of the national market, supporting high-frequency daily usage by millions of customers. At the same time, the loan portfolio grew to approximately $946 million, building a diversified base across cash loans, credit cards and BNPL.
Scaling efficiently
Customer experience improvements were a defining feature of 2025. Financial services are embedded directly within everyday interactions, with innovations such as in-app BNPL enabling customers to access credit seamlessly at the point of payment. The integration of the Payme platform has created a primary transactional environment where payments, lending and engagement are combined into a single journey. AI is increasingly visible through tools such as the Lola assistant, enhancing customer servicing and enabling more responsive, scalable interactions.
“We embedded BNPL directly into the payments app,” says CEO Nika Kurdiani. “It’s literally a toggle at checkout; what we call the fastest loan in the world.”
What we have is a fully digital bank, not just a digital front end. Our entire technology stack is built in-house
Sharof Sharipov
The bank also made significant progress in extending its model to SMEs. Fully digital business banking services, combined with payment acceptance, lending and software tools, allow small businesses to manage operations, access working capital and connect directly with customers within the ecosystem, strengthening network effects between consumer and business activity.
Notably, TBC has maintained profitability while scaling rapidly, driven by efficient digital acquisition, high engagement and improving revenue per user. By the end of 2025, TBC Uzbekistan has moved far beyond the status of a high-growth challenger to become one of the most relevant and culturally embedded financial platforms in the market, setting a new standard for digital banking in Central Asia’s emerging, high-growth markets.
