Central Bank of Uzbekistan issued a pawnshop license to the Qorasuv-Invest LLC (Tashkent) in accordance with the Article 50 of the Law "On Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan".

The company will issue loans collateralized by movable property, the press service of the Central Bank said. Currently, about 17 companies have pawnshop licenses.

Statement on the order of licensing the activity of pawnshops, Regulations on Activity and Operations of the Pawnshops, Statement on the Order of Reporting by Pawnshops, approved by the board of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan and registered by the Ministry of Justice on 10 December 2003, entered into force on 20 December 2003.

According to the definition provided in the Statement on the Order of Issuing Licenses to Pawnshops, a pawnshop is an organisation providing financial services to the population in the form of short-term credit pawned by movables of citizens. Besides, pawnshops may accept for storage citizens’ movables meant for personal consumption.

Pawnshops have the right to accept precious stones and non-ferrous metals. To do so, the pawnshop staff should have a qualified specialist with corresponding license to evaluate the pawned artifact containing precious stones or non-ferrous metals, as well as valuable goods and other types of property.

Pawnshop should conduct operations in compliance with the rules approved by the higher-standing body of pawnshop management, namely, define the maximum amount and period for provision of credit, maximum interest rates on the credits to be issued, conditions on receiving credit interest, requirements on deposit accepted by the pawnshop, etc.

Property pawned by the population in a pawnshop to receive credit is evaluated on mutual agreement of both sides and is to be returned immediately on the depositor’s fulfillment of the agreement conditions. Besides, this property is subject to obligatory insurance, at the account of a pawnshop by insurance organizations.

The maximum period of credit issued by the pawnshop is three months. In case of the depositor’s not repayment of the amount in the agreed period, the pawnshop shall have the right to sell the property in an established order in a period of one beneficial month based on the executive signature of a notary. After this, the depositor’s liability to the pawnshop is covered, even if the amount received from the sale of the pawned property does not fully cover the amount of credit issued by pawnshop.

The amount earned by the pawnshop from the sale of pawned property is to cover the credit, the interest on the credit, forfeit, damage caused by the delay of repayment, as well as payment for storage, insurance and sale of the pawned property. If after the sale of the pawned property, the received amount exceeds the amount demanded by the pawnshop, the difference is paid to the depositor.