The Fintech Association called on Central Asian countries to consolidate their financial infrastructure.

The Fintech Association of Central Asia has launched an initiative to unify the financial infrastructure of the region's countries, proposing four key areas for market harmonization. These proposals include interoperability of payment systems, mutual recognition of digital identifiers, compatible standards for open banking, and unified data management principles. This information was presented by participants in the session "Building the Open Ecosystem — Rails, Capital & the Rules That Connect Markets" at the Silk Road Finance and Technology Forum, which took place in Tashkent on August 25.

The session was moderated by Chek-Chung Fu, Director of Regulation and Policy at the Global Finance & Technology Network, who structured the discussion around the three core components of an open financial architecture: payment infrastructure ("rails"), regulatory standards, and capital.

Khusankhoja Abidov, Director of Strategy, Transformation, and Project Management at the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, emphasized that none of these elements can function in isolation. He noted that interoperability—the ability to connect markets, data, and infrastructure across different countries—remains a key obstacle to the region's development.

According to Abidov, the Central Bank of Uzbekistan seeks to stimulate innovation by introducing regulations gradually, as risks and scale increase, rather than predetermining successful business models. He also emphasized that the success of open finance in Uzbekistan should be measured not by the number of developed APIs, but by the availability of cheaper and higher-quality financial products for consumers and businesses.

Roman Tretyakov, Deputy Chairman of the Board for IT and Digital Transformation at Octobank, announced the bank's plans to operate using the "banking as a service" model, providing partners with access to its services and APIs. He acknowledged that data transfer to partners is challenging due to privacy and security requirements, and the bank is working with the Central Bank to ensure the secure exchange of open data.

Ahmet Kayhan, Group Director of Payments and Digital Assets at VEON, explained that the telecommunications group serves over 220 million customers in five countries, including Uzbekistan. He noted that VEON already provides financial services through its communications infrastructure in regions where it is often unprofitable for banks to serve remote or low-income customers. According to him, embedded financing is already forming around this infrastructure through merchants and entrepreneurs, who essentially function as mini-banks.

Madhusudanan R., co-founder of M2P Fintech, noted that when choosing between building their own infrastructure and acquiring ready-made solutions, banks are typically guided by two factors: transparent and consent-based data management, and the contribution to financial inclusion. Comparing regulatory approaches across regions, he noted that in Europe, strict regulation hinders innovation, while in some Asian countries, regulators are establishing principles that allow private companies to develop solutions based on open public infrastructure.

Otabek Nasirov, Chairman of the Central Asian Fintech Association, stated that the region does not need to adopt identical laws and create identical systems in all five countries. Instead, he proposed focusing on four areas: payment interoperability (including QR payments and faster and cheaper cross-border transfers), mutual recognition of digital identification and remote electronic ID, compatibility of open banking API standards, and common principles of data governance across countries.

He stated that the goal is not to create a single regional regulator, but rather mutually recognized standards and compatible infrastructure capable of uniting the markets of five countries with a population of over 80 million.

Stefan Klestil, Partner at the venture capital fund Speedinvest, said the fund has backed seven unicorn companies in emerging markets, including a recently announced fintech unicorn from Dubai. He emphasized that the fund prioritizes the quality of the founding team over market size.

Klestil noted Uzbekistan's strong technological potential and the significant diaspora of specialists abroad. He believes the key indicator of success will be the return of top specialists to their homeland to start businesses, rather than to Silicon Valley.