Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Today, digital technologies are rapidly entering all sectors of our economy. The development of electronic commerce, the formation of a competitive environment for payment service providers can be helped by reducing their costs of retail payments, introducing new and easy-to-use means of payment, with which you can pay without intermediary services of financial institutions, the Central Bank reports.

The adoption of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Payments and Payment Systems” has created the legal basis for the issuance, use and redemption of electronic money.

Based on this Law, the Central Bank has developed the “Rules for the Issue and Circulation of Electronic Money in the Republic of Uzbekistan”, registered by the Ministry of Justice on 29 April 2020 (registration No. 3231).

When developing the document, world practice was studied with the aim of organizing the activities of the electronic money system, the circulation of electronic money, risk management and ensuring security in the electronic money system.

The rules explain the basic concepts of an electronic money system, including “exchange transaction”, “single-issue and multi-issue electronic money system”, “prepaid card”, “electronic money system agent”, “electronic wallet” and others.

In accordance with the rules, the subjects of the electronic money system are the issuing bank, operator and agents of the electronic money system, owners of electronic money, as well as banks, individual entrepreneurs and legal entities that have concluded an agreement with the operator of the electronic money system.

The operator of the electronic money system can be a bank and (or) a payment institution that has an appropriate license. The settlement bank of the electronic money system may be the issuer or another bank that has concluded an agreement with the operator of the electronic money system.

Before starting its activities, the issuer sends a notification to the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan on the start of activities for the issuance and sale of electronic money in a specific form and attaches an agreement with the operator to it, as well as samples of contracts concluded with entities of the electronic money system.

This regulatory document determines that the operator ensures the execution of transactions in the electronic money system in accordance with the rules of the electronic money system. The operator determines the rules of the electronic money system in accordance with the contract with the issuer. The rules of the electronic money system must be agreed with the issuer in a single-issue electronic money system and with all issuers in a multi-issue system.

Electronic Money Issue

According to the document, the issuance of electronic money is carried out by the issuer within the money received from an individual or agent in accordance with the rules of the electronic money system and the agreement on the issue, use and redemption of electronic money.

Electronic money is issued by the issuer after the provision of cash or non-cash funds by an individual. Accounting of funds is carried out by the issuer in a special settlement account opened with a settlement bank.

The sale of electronic money to an individual and an agent is carried out by depositing electronic money purchased from the issuer into an electronic wallet formed by an electronic money system for each owner.

Based on a contract with the issuer or operator, an agent of the electronic money system can purchase electronic money from individuals who own electronic money at a nominal value for the purpose of further sale or redemption.

It should be emphasized that the issue of electronic money on the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan is carried out only in national currency.

When issuing electronic money, the issuer and agent of the electronic money system issues to the owner a receipt or other document on paper and (or) in electronic form, confirming the fact of sale and acquisition by the owner of electronic money. The receipt must contain the following details:

name of agent, issuer and operator;

time and date of the transaction;

sequence number of the operation;

the amount of electronic money issued;

identification code of the electronic wallet of the owner of electronic money;

amount of commission charged (if provided for in the agreement on the issue, use and redemption of electronic money).

Using electronic money

According to the rules, electronic money is used by its owner, an individual, in order to make payments and other transactions on the conditions defined by the rules of the electronic money system and not contradicting the legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, by transferring electronic money from the owner to another member of the electronic money system.

It was also determined that the exchange of electronic money denominated in foreign currency issued by a non-resident of the Republic of Uzbekistan is carried out by the issuer in the presence of an agreement with this subject.

Electronic money can be used to purchase goods, works and services from an individual entrepreneur and legal entity. The issuer or operator forms special electronic wallets for individual entrepreneurs and legal entities. These e-wallets are used only for accepting electronic money for goods sold, work or services provided for the purpose of further repayment in nominal value. It is forbidden to re-sell electronic money on special wallets of individual entrepreneurs and legal entities.

Redemption of electronic money

The issuing bank is required to redeem the electronic money presented by its owner by exchange for cash or by transferring non-cash money to the owner’s bank account in accordance with the rules of this system and the agreement on the issue, use and redemption of electronic money concluded between the issuer and the owner.

Electronic money is considered repaid by its issuer from the moment the corresponding amount of money is credited:

to the bank account of the owner of electronic money - an individual or the issue of cash to him;

to the bank account of the owner of electronic money - an individual entrepreneur or legal entity.

The issuer issues a receipt on the operation to redeem electronic money to the owner of electronic money on paper or in electronic form.

It should be noted that upon termination of the activity on issuing electronic money, the issuer informs the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan in a certain form about it in thirty days and publishes an announcement about it on its official website, also informs owners and other entities of the electronic money system about the termination of their activities by means of a message in the media, including electronic media.

If, after the expiration of the deadlines set by the issuer, no calls have been received from the owners of electronic money, the outstanding electronic money in the electronic wallets of the owners is forcibly repaid. In order to receive forcibly canceled electronic money of individuals, the issuer is presented with an identity document or information containing a code value that is previously sent by the issuer to the address, including the electronic address, of each owner of electronic money.

At the same time, the document describes in detail the mandatory measures taken by the operator and the issuer to ensure security and risk management in the electronic money system.

It is planned to create conditions in the republic for the development of electronic commerce by expanding the market for payment services, introducing modern tools and procedures for selling goods (services) via the Internet, expanding the geography and increasing sales of goods and services of local business entities.

The formation of modern payment instruments in the payment services market will help optimize the costs of electronic money system entities: individuals and business entities.

In addition, as a result of the exchange of electronic money denominated in foreign currency by an issuer that has signed an agreement with a non-resident of the Republic of Uzbekistan, conditions will be created for integrating the national electronic money system into a foreign electronic money system.

The creation and implementation of an electronic money system is a new system process that allows providing bank customers with yet another tool for managing their money.

In this process, the "Rules for the issuance and circulation of electronic money in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan" serve as the legal basis.