According to Fixygen, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan is exploring the possibility of introducing a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), while also testing stablecoins and intending to continue reducing the state’s share in the banking sector.
Representatives of the regulator made these statements at the Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum 2026, which is taking place in Tashkent from August 24–26. The forum was organized by the Central Bank of Uzbekistan and the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN). More than 6,000 representatives from 74 countries are participating.
Nodirbek Achilov, Deputy Chairman and Member of the Board of the Central Bank, stated that the regulator is analyzing international experience with wholesale CBDCs, including both successful and unsuccessful projects.
Unlike a retail digital currency, which could potentially be used by the general public for everyday payments, a wholesale CBDC is intended primarily for settlements between banks and other financial institutions. Among the potential benefits of such an instrument, Achilov cited increased security and efficiency in interbank settlements.
The central bank is also testing a stablecoin system in a special regulatory regime in collaboration with Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Prospective Projects. A decision on further scaling up the project is planned to be made after the completion of research and an assessment of the financial market’s reaction. The topic of stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and the tokenization of real assets is one of the distinct themes of the forum’s program.
At the same time, the Central Bank plans to continue privatization and reduce the state’s presence in the banking system. Central Bank Governor Timur Ishmetov stated that over the past few years, the state’s share in the sector has decreased from approximately 85% to 60%. “We will continue this trend,” Ishmetov said.
Official Central Bank statistics show that as of June 1, 2026, banks with state participation accounted for about 63% of the banking system’s assets, 66% of the loan portfolio, and 59% of capital. Total assets of commercial banks amounted to 984.4 trillion sum.
The regulator is also preparing to publish a strategy for foreign exchange interventions. According to Ishmetov, the Central Bank’s operations in the foreign exchange market are not aimed at keeping the sum exchange rate at a specific fixed level. Interventions, in particular, are related to gold purchases and the regulation of the money supply.
The Central Bank intends to continue maintaining a flexible, market-oriented exchange rate and to present plans for further liberalization of capital account transactions. “We are ready to be more open and transparent,” Ishmetov noted.
In addition, the Central Bank has prepared a three-year roadmap for reforming banking regulation following the Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) conducted by the IMF and the World Bank. The regulator plans to align requirements with the international Basel III standards and transition banks to reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum is being held in Uzbekistan for the first time. The organizers cite positioning the country as a regional hub for financial technology in Central Asia as one of the forum’s goals. Specific sessions of the forum are dedicated to digital assets, payment infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cross-border payments, tokenization, and CBDCs.
Ukraine’s ten most profitable banks accounted for 47.68 billion hryvnias, or 88 per cent of the entire banking system’s net profit, in the first half of 2026, according to the Experts Club information and analysis centre, based on data from Opendatabot and NBU statistics published on 19 August.
The total net profit of 59 Ukrainian banks amounted to UAH 54.07 billion. The top 10 included three state-owned banks, five banks with foreign capital, and two banks with Ukrainian private capital.
The ranking was topped by PrivatBank with UAH 24.56 billion in net profit. Universal Bank, on whose platform monobank operates, ranked second with UAH 3.85 billion, while Raiffeisen Bank placed third with UAH 3.57 billion. They were followed by Oschadbank with UAH 3.38 billion, FUIB with UAH 3.12 billion, Ukreximbank with UAH 2.24 billion, OTP Bank with UAH 1.91 billion, Ukrsibbank with UAH 1.85 billion, Citibank with UAH 1.68 billion, and Credit Agricole Bank with UAH 1.53 billion.
At the same time, Universal Bank became one of the few leaders to significantly improve its result: its profit increased from UAH 2.41 billion in the first half of 2025 to UAH 3.85 billion in 2026. PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Raiffeisen Bank, FUIB, Ukreximbank, and most other top-10 banks posted lower net results, largely due to the increased tax burden.
Thus, the Ukrainian banking market remains highly concentrated in terms of profit: nearly nine out of every ten hryvnias of the sector’s net financial result were earned by just ten institutions.
The primary source is Opendatabot, dated August 19, 2026, with calculations based on data from the National Bank of Ukraine.
Ukrainian banks earned UAH 54.07 billion in net profit in the first half of 2026, while their pre-tax profit reached UAH 108.57 billion, the Experts Club information and analytical center reports, based on Opendatabot calculations and data from the National Bank of Ukraine. The material was published on August 19, 2026.
Banks’ income tax expenses amounted to UAH 54.5 billion, thereby exceeding half of the financial result earned before taxation. During the same period last year, banks accrued UAH 21.99 billion in tax.
In its review of the results of solvent banks, the National Bank also reported that the sector’s net profit in the first half of the year amounted to about UAH 54 billion and was 32% lower year-on-year. One of the main reasons was the application of an increased 50% corporate income tax rate for banks in 2026.
At the same time, the banking sector’s operating profitability remains high. According to the NBU, the pre-tax profit of solvent banks in the first half of the year increased by 6.5% compared with the corresponding period of 2025.
In 2025, banks paid corporate income tax at the standard sector rate of 25%, but in 2026 the rate was raised again to 50%. The NBU has repeatedly warned that increased taxation reduces banks’ ability to build up capital and expand lending to the economy.
The primary sources are NBU data and the Opendatabot study dated August 19, 2026.
Banks with Ukrainian private capital earned 9.7 billion UAH in net profit during the first half of 2026, with just two banks—Universal Bank and PUMB—accounting for approximately 72% of this group’s total profit, according to data released on August 19 by Opendatabot.
Universal Bank, under whose banking license monobank operates, earned 3.85 billion UAH, while PUMB earned 3.12 billion UAH. Both institutions ranked among the top five most profitable banks in Ukraine for the first six months of the year.
Universal Bank significantly improved its performance compared to the same period in 2025, when its net profit was 2.41 billion UAH. The bank rose from ninth to second place in the all-Ukrainian profitability ranking.
In total, 30 profitable privately owned banks earned 9.86 billion UAH, while nine unprofitable institutions in this group posted a combined net loss of 161.78 million UAH. Privately owned banks’ income tax expenses totaled 9.87 billion UAH.
By comparison, 15 banks with foreign capital generated 11.91 billion UAH in net profit, or 22% of the entire banking system’s total profit. Among them, Raiffeisen Bank posted the highest profit in the first half of the year—3.57 billion UAH—followed by OTP Bank with 1.91 billion UAH, UkrSibbank with 1.85 billion UAH, Citibank with 1.68 billion UAH, and Credit Agricole Bank with 1.53 billion UAH. All five made it into the overall top 10.
Of the 15 banks with foreign capital, 13 ended the first half of the year with a profit. Pravex Bank and the transitional bank UTE Bank posted a combined loss of about 43 million UAH.
The volume of cash inflows to banks’ teller windows in the first half of 2026 increased by 8.9% compared to the same period in 2025—to 1 trillion 554.8 billion UAH, while the volume of cash disbursements rose by 8.7% to 1 trillion 602.4 billion hryvnias, according to statistics from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“The increase in cash inflows to bank teller windows was driven by a revival in economic activity starting in the second quarter of this year and sustained consumer demand amid rising household incomes, particularly wages and pensions,” the National Bank noted on its Telegram channel on Monday.
The regulator attributes the rise in hryvnia cash withdrawals from bank teller windows to heightened security risks caused by airstrikes and the destruction of industrial, energy, and residential infrastructure, which sustained public demand for cash.
In the first half of 2026, the largest share of cash withdrawals from bank teller windows, as before, came from customer transactions using payment cards—85.5%, or 1 trillion 369.7 billion hryvnias.
Banks’ purchases of foreign currency from customers accounted for 4.9%, or 78.9 billion UAH; cash replenishments for postal operators accounted for 3.4%, or 54.9 billion UAH; and payments of salaries and scholarships accounted for 2.2%, or 34.6 billion UAH.
The main sources of cash inflows to bank teller windows remained retail sales proceeds—31.4%, or 488 billion UAH—and customer transactions using payment cards—28.0%, or 435.7 billion UAH.
Foreign currency sales accounted for another 15.3%, or 238.1 billion UAH, while revenue from all types of services accounted for 12.2%, or 188.9 billion UAH.
The National Bank of Ukraine’s (NBU) increase of the monthly limit on non-cash foreign currency purchases by individuals from 50,000 UAH to 200,000 UAH may lead to a short-term rise in demand, but will not have a significant impact on the foreign exchange market, according to bankers surveyed by Interfax-Ukraine.
“In our opinion, there may be a certain surge in demand for non-cash foreign currency purchases in the first few days after the changes take effect,” said Emal Bakhtari, director of the financial instruments sales department at Raiffeisen Bank.
According to him, the proportion of customers who previously found the monthly limit of 50,000 UAH insufficient is relatively small. He suggested that the National Bank would, if necessary, smooth out short-term spikes in demand through currency interventions.
Serhiy Mamedov, Chairman of the Board of Globus Bank, also does not expect a proportional increase in demand following the fourfold increase in the limit. According to him, the limit determines only the maximum possible transaction amount, whereas the public’s purchase of cash foreign currency was not previously restricted by a similar monthly limit.
Currency liberalization in and of itself is unlikely to pose a threat to exchange rate stability at this point, Mamedov believes. Substantial international reserves give the regulator the ability to smooth out excessive exchange rate fluctuations, and the high discount rate should maintain the attractiveness of hryvnia-denominated instruments; however, this model depends to a large extent on the regularity of international financial assistance.
Anton Kurinny, a dealer in OTP Bank’s Global Markets Department, also forecasts an increase in demand for foreign currency but does not expect this to have a significant impact on the interbank market, where importers’ needs and the shortfall in export proceeds remain the more significant factors.
According to Kurinnyi, additional demand may also arise in the cash market following the increase in the daily limit for currency withdrawals from 100,000 UAH to 200,000 UAH, since the cash exchange rate hovers close to interbank quotes and is sometimes even lower than them.
Mamedov identified the worsening balance between goods imports and exports as a separate risk. According to the data he cited, in January–July 2026, goods imports totaled $58.1 billion, while exports amounted to $24.1 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of approximately $34 billion.
According to the banker, a further increase in the trade imbalance and problems with maritime logistics could intensify structural demand for foreign currency and the need for NBU interventions, while the dynamics of reserves will also depend on the volume of international financing.
Oleksandr Pecheritsyn, director of the analytical research department at Raiffeisen Bank, assesses the risk of a significant outflow of household savings from hryvnia deposits and domestic government bonds (OVGZ) into foreign currency as limited.
In his view, hryvnia-denominated deposits and domestic government bonds remain more attractive than holding savings in foreign currency cash, and the growth in household investments in domestic government bonds was primarily driven by their higher returns relative to the expected devaluation of the hryvnia.
At the same time, Pecheritsyn suggests that raising the limit on non-cash foreign currency purchases could reduce the volume of so-called “technical” foreign currency deposits, which households opened for three months to subsequently obtain foreign currency.
“If the volume of such deposits declines and banks need foreign currency resources to conduct active operations—particularly lending—interest rates on foreign currency deposits may rise slightly. At the same time, this will not necessarily become a general trend across the entire banking sector,” he noted.
Raising the daily limit on cash foreign currency withdrawals could theoretically also boost public interest in foreign currency deposits; however, according to Pecheritsyn’s assessment, given the population’s average incomes and savings, this effect will not be widespread and will not lead to a significant increase in such deposits.
As previously reported, effective August 11, the NBU increased the monthly limit on the public’s purchase of non-cash foreign currency from 50,000 hryvnias to 200,000 hryvnias and extended it to include the purchase of non-cash bank metals and securities issued by foreign entities.
The regulator also raised the daily limit on cash withdrawals by individuals from foreign currency accounts in Ukraine and abroad from 100,000 hryvnias to 200,000 hryvnias and eased a number of other foreign exchange restrictions for individuals and legal entities.
The National Bank stated that the new package of easing measures will not pose risks to the stability of the foreign exchange market and has already been factored into the updated macroeconomic forecast, which projects an increase in international reserves to nearly $70 billion by 2026.
