Uzbekistan, a populous country in Central Asia, is undergoing rapid changes in its financial sector as more people turn to digital banking. TBC Uzbekistan, part of the London-listed TBC Bank Group, is one of the companies shaping this shift.
It operates three businesses: TBC UZ, a mobile-only bank; Payme, a digital payments app for individuals and small businesses; and Payme Nasiya, an instalment credit service. With retail banking still relatively underdeveloped in the country, demand for digital financial services has been growing, particularly among younger, tech-savvy consumers.
Nika Kurdiani, CEO of TBC Uzbekistan, is responsible for driving TBC’s digital banking and payments ecosystem in Uzbekistan, scaling its presence in the country.
In this week’s In Profile, we chat to Kurdiani about his approach to leading a major digital bank in a traditionally underserved market, the unique challenges it presents and what lies ahead for TBC Uzbekistan.
Tell us more about your company and its purpose
TBC Uzbekistan is the leading digital banking ecosystem in Central Asia, comprising three high-growth businesses: TBC UZ, a mobile-only bank; Payme, a digital payments app for individuals and small businesses; and Payme Nasiya (Payme Instalments), a fast-growing instalment credit business.
We are part of London-listed TBC Bank Group, which also operates the leading financial services provider in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia.
Our mission is to make people’s lives easier and we are achieving that by bringing modern, digital banking services to Uzbekistan, a rapidly growing market that has not gone unnoticed by international investors. Uzbekistan is a high-potential opportunity – it is the most populous nation in Central Asia and its population is young – with 59 per cent under the age of 30.
The country has enjoyed annual GDP growth of around six per cent for the past decade, driven by an ambitious liberalisation and reform agenda that has created a supportive environment for both local and international businesses.
Crucially for TBC, Uzbekistan is a data-rich country with advanced open banking, superior to that of any European nation. Open banking in Uzbekistan is fully interoperable, allowing customers to interact with multiple financial institutions. For instance, when a customer of one bank opens an account with another institution, the new bank gains visibility into the customer’s transaction history and account balances from their original bank, while the new bank is also able to initiate fund transfers or debit transactions from the customer’s account at the original institution.
Together these factors create a perfect foundation for us to build out our offering to address the large and growing demand for modern banking services in the country.
What are some of your recent achievements you’d like to highlight?
2024 was a record-breaking year for us at TBC Uzbekistan. We continued to launch new products and expand our services, diversify our funding base, and integrate advanced AI technology into our business, enabling us to continue achieving fast-paced, profitable growth.
Throughout the year, we achieved numerous exciting milestones, including the launch of Salom Card, our flagship debit card and daily banking product that is set to serve as the key entry point into our wider ecosystem. In addition to Salom Card, we introduced a new revolving credit card product and launched TBC Business, Uzbekistan’s first fully digital banking service for SMEs and individual entrepreneurs.
These product launches were supplemented by major investments in our key infrastructure, including our own payments processing center that will enable us to bring products to market quicker and more efficiently, as well as developing our own Uzbek language LLMs.
We also secured a record $75million in equity funding, as well as $105million in wholesale financing and $13million in debt funding, successfully diversifying our funding base and providing a solid foundation for further growth.
How did you get into the fintech industry?
I have been part of the banking business for over 20 years, overseeing a wide range of markets including Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Serbia in roles focused on enabling retail, payments, SME banking and much more with the right processes and the right technology. In that sense, I have transitioned alongside the industry as fintech emerged as a key new sector.
I joined TBC Bank Group in 2014 as Deputy CEO for the Georgian business. As the group opted to expand into Central Asia, my experience in the region meant I was the best fit for the role of CEO of our Uzbekistan operations. Since that point on, my focus has been entirely on digital banking – as we have been successfully building out the region’s leading digital-only banking ecosystem.
What’s the best thing about working in the fintech industry?
For me, the fintech industry is all about bringing cutting-edge, tech-enabled solutions to our customers and using these solutions to take the pain and drudgery out of money matters. Fintech can simplify people’s lives by helping them spend less time, less energy and fewer resources while still getting all the financial services they need, delivered in an intuitive, seamless and transparent way.
It is also fun to challenge long-established business models and exploit cross-platform synergies through embedded-financial products or open banking. Fintech allows one to create services around customer needs and insights across various verticals, be it ecommerce, mobile communications or banking.
What frustrates you most about the fintech industry?
I am frustrated by the unjustified hype touting fintech as something almighty with infallible business models. The truth is that you have to know how to earn money. If you have a great product, fantastic customer experience, smooth design and great branding – but you don’t know how to earn money – you will be out of business very quickly.
So, to achieve the wider mission of making people’s lives easier by enriching the fintech ecosystem, one has to make sure to earn from day one.
How have your previous roles influenced your career?
Massively. I have been in retail banking all my working life and have witnessed the continued innovation of service models in the sector, including various stages of branch-based banking. I experienced the start of multichannel banking, which grew into digital banking.
At the same time, I saw the emergence of new fintech players and incumbent banks launching their own upstarts to try and withstand the pressure from emerging fintechs. In short, I’ve been there for banking 1.0, 2.0 …..6.0 and counting as our industry continues to evolve.
What’s the best mistake you’ve ever made?
The best ‘mistake’ I’ve ever made was not moving to the US for my postgraduate studies. Even though when deciding where to get my MBA I wondered whether choosing Europe would be a mistake, I am very happy with my choice to attend IE Business School and the career path this (and my other choices) have unlocked for me in Uzbekistan, one of the most dynamic and exciting emerging markets in the world.
An MBA from an American University would have most likely led me down a very different, more traditional career path in the US or another developed market. So, I’m very grateful for how it all played out in the end.
What has the future got in store for your company?
While we have already established ourselves as a digital banking powerhouse in Uzbekistan, serving 17 million unique registered users, delivering a net profit of $27million for 9M24, and contributing nearly 15 per cent of total Group revenue, we see significant untapped potential for further growth.
We are particularly excited by the potential of AI, and 2025 will see major new developments in this area.
Looking further ahead, we are primarily focused on scaling our footprint in Uzbekistan and cementing our position as Central Asia’s leading digital banking ecosystem, while also exploring opportunities in new markets with populations of around 30 million to 70 million people and significant scope for growth.
What are the next key talking points or challenges for your industry as a whole?
In my opinion, the biggest challenge and upside for the industry and for us specifically, is how to use AI capabilities in every organisational function or stream, while still making sure that we deliver a continuously improving customer and product experience.
We are giving this a lot of thought as we are building the ‘AI Bank of the Future’. We have already deployed AI agents to handle loan payment reminder calls and have some other exciting AI-enabled initiatives including in-app virtual assistants due to launch later this year.
AI level 0 of 5: researched, written and edited by Claire Woffenden without generative AI; only everyday tools such as spelling and grammar checkers were used. What the levels mean
