Transferring a portion of Central Bank reserves to the management of foreign companies: benefits and risks
The Central Bank recently announced that the possibility of transferring a portion of the gold and foreign exchange reserves to international asset managers is being considered. What will this step bring to Uzbekistan, how will it affect the security and liquidity of the reserves, and under what conditions will it justify itself? Kun.uz columnist Ahliddin Malikov reflects on this.
Transferring part of Central Bank reserves to the management of foreign companies: benefits and risks
Uzbekistan's gold and foreign exchange reserves reached $72.1 billion as of September 1, 2026. This covers the country's imports for more than a year. At the International Forum on Public Asset Management held in Tashkent on September 18, the Chairman of the Central Bank (CB) said that the bank would continue to diversify reserves by asset type, currency, and counterparties. According to him, one of the directions of diversification is transferring part of the assets to external management. The Central Bank has clearly prioritized this practice: safety first, then liquidity, and then profitability. However, the volume of external management, which assets it will apply to, and which companies will be involved have not yet been disclosed.
Based on this, an important question arises:
Should the CB entrust part of its foreign exchange reserves to foreign asset management companies?
This question covers three aspects:
• What advantages can external management of reserves bring to the CB?
• How will this affect the safety, liquidity of reserves, and monetary policy?
• What risks exist, and under what conditions do the benefits outweigh the risks?
Below we analyze these issues.
Why is external management being discussed?
First of all, attention should be paid to the composition of the reserves. As of September 1, out of the $72.1 billion in reserves, $64.9 billion, or nearly 90 percent, consists of gold. Foreign exchange assets, on the other hand, amount to only $6.6 billion, which is the lowest figure since 2013. Of these, $1.8 billion is placed in securities.
Composition of Uzbekistan's international reserves, USD billion.
The share of gold increased from 58 percent in 2020 to 90 percent. This is the result of a sharp rise in gold prices and the CB's purchase of gold. For this reason, the CB is talking about diversifying reserves, that is, reducing dependence on a single asset.
In international practice, most central banks delegate part of their reserves to external managers. According to the World Bank's Central Bank Reserve Management Practices: Insights into Public Asset Management report, 75 percent of surveyed central banks use at least one external manager. At the same time, the share of reserves transferred to external management is usually small: among those surveyed