TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, January 8. Uzbekistan plans to introduce Islamic finance criteria and procedures in at least three commercial banks by 2030, Trend reports.
The initiative is detailed in the draft of the updated Uzbekistan-2030 Strategy, which has been made available for public consultation.
According to the document, the government plans to establish a comprehensive legal framework for Islamic finance and gradually introduce Sharia-compliant financial products into the national banking system.
As outlined in the roadmap, Islamic finance products are expected to be introduced in at least one commercial bank by 2027. Between 2029 and 2030, the number of banks offering such products is anticipated to increase to three. The financing of these initiatives will be sourced from the commercial banks themselves, with the Central Bank of Uzbekistan assigned as the coordinating authority.
Discussions regarding the development of Islamic banking and finance infrastructure in Uzbekistan have been underway since 2018. In June 2023, during an international forum in Tashkent, Bahrom Nomonov, Chairman of Apex Bank, highlighted that approximately 20% of Uzbekistan’s population avoids conventional lending products for religious reasons, underscoring a significant untapped demand for Islamic financial services.
Islamic banking constitutes a financial paradigm that operates in strict compliance with the tenets of Sharia jurisprudence. It underscores the principles of equitable profit and loss distribution, integrity, transparency, and ethical conduct in fiscal transactions.