The National Bank of Uzbekistan started a small pilot project in 1995 with 5,000 smart cards. This project has evolved into a fully-fledged National Interbank Payment System under the brand name UZKART and currently comprises 6.6 million UEPS smart cards and 45,000 POS terminals.

The National Interbank Payment System operates on Net1’s FTS/UEPS technology platform and is supported and jointly managed by the 25 largest banks of Uzbekistan.

“The UEPS smart card technology was the ideal choice to address the Uzbek needs, having been developed to substitute cash in the domestic mass markets. Its innovative offline card-to-card concept has proved to be more efficient, flexible, and profitable for domestic markets than cash or conventional payment solutions,” said Leonid Delberg, Managing Director of Net1 UTA. “After 15 successful years, transaction volumes and numbers are consistently increasing, establishing UZKART as the preferred day-to-day means of payment in Uzbekistan. We look forward to continuing our excellent partnership with the banks of Uzbekistan to further innovate the domestic financial services market,” he concluded.