Apple Pay and Google Pay go live in Uzbekistan for Visa and Mastercard cards from local banks

Shoppers in Uzbekistan can now add locally issued Visa and Mastercard cards to Apple Pay and Google Pay. Support went live on 27 October 2026, after Google announced its launch on 19 October at an event in Samarkand and the national Tourism Committee confirmed it on 22 October. Apple Wallet supports cards from eight institutions at launch: Uzum Bank, Orient Finans Bank, National Bank of Uzbekistan, Kapitalbank, Hamkorbank, Ipak Yuli Bank, TBC Bank and Octobank. Uzum Bank and Hamkorbank support only Visa cards. Google Wallet works with nine banks, the same seven that support Apple Pay plus AVO Bank and Aloqabank. Cards from the domestic schemes Humo and Uzcard are not yet supported, although the central bank is working on making them compatible. The launch followed changes to personal data law in March 2026, which relaxed limits on storing some data abroad, and talks between the central bank and the two technology firms from July. The rollout is still at an early stage, and some banks are still testing. Online acceptance is already moving. On 27 October the local payment firm Click added Apple Pay to its hosted payment page, so merchants using it can switch the wallet on without their own integration while Click handles processing, settlement and refunds. Octobank had already offered both wallets to some online acquiring clients, including two airlines, since September. For international e-commerce sellers, wallet support makes tokenised, authenticated card payments from Uzbek shoppers easier.