TBC Uzbekistan has been included for the second year in a row in the global fintech ranking compiled by CNBC and Statista in the neobanking category. The result follows its debut in 2025, when it became the first company from Uzbekistan to appear on the list, and it brings renewed international attention to one of Central Asia’s largest digital banking groups.
The ranking draws on financial and operating indicators, among them revenue, profitability, customer numbers, lending and deposit growth, transaction volumes, market share and staffing. A repeat appearance therefore suggests that the underlying business has kept improving across several dimensions at once, rather than excelling in a single metric.
The scale behind the ranking
Since its launch in 2020, the bank has grown into one of the dominant financial services players in Uzbekistan. It reports more than six million monthly active users and ranks among the three leading financial services brands for consumers in the country. It also describes itself as a top-ten consumer bank, with more than 20 percent of the payments market and a leading position in consumer credit.
The group operates through two main consumer-facing brands, TBC UZ and Payme, and extends into business services through TBC Business and BILLZ. It is part of TBC Bank Group, which is listed in London and has a significant presence in Georgia. That parentage brings international governance standards, while the Uzbek operation retains its own product and technology teams.
The company says it reached profitability two years after its launch, a pace it describes as a record among digital banks globally. Fast profitability is rarely a given for neobanks, many of which depend on external funding for years, so the claim helps to explain why the ranking methodology gave the bank a prominent place.
Diversifying beyond consumer finance
A notable part of the story is the growth of business banking. TBC Business, described as Uzbekistan’s first fully digital solution for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, was launched in December 2024 and has attracted more than 67,000 registered business customers. Business lending now makes up 18 percent of the bank’s total loan portfolio.
That figure shows how quickly the portfolio has been rebalanced. Consumer finance has long been the engine of growth in digital banking, but it is also sensitive to household debt levels and to changes in regulation. A larger share of business lending spreads risk across sectors and connects the bank to the productive side of the economy.
How customers search for and use credit online
Consumer behaviour is the foundation of this expansion. The rising frequency of queries such as “получить кредит онлайн” and “onlayn kredit” reflects a broader shift in the market, in which applicants expect to see conditions, submit documents and receive a decision on a phone screen instead of in a branch. For a lender like TBC Bank Uzbekistan, which began as a mobile-first operation, the ability to meet this expectation at scale is what turns a banking licence into a mass-market brand.
Speed is the common thread. Fast onboarding, instant status updates and quick payouts reduce abandonment, and each improvement tends to raise the share of applications that end in a completed loan. Banks that measure the whole journey, not only the final approval rate, are better placed to find friction and remove it.
The same expectation now applies to entrepreneurs. A shop owner who is comfortable ordering goods and paying bills through an app will not accept paper-heavy procedures when asking for working capital. This is why digital business platforms have become a priority for banks across emerging markets.
Artificial intelligence in service, sales and collections
The group has been investing in artificial intelligence across customer support, sales and collections. These efforts are supported by its own speech technology and Uzbek-language large language models, a notable detail in a market where global tools often handle local languages poorly. More recently, the bank introduced Lola, described as Central Asia’s first AI banking assistant, which advises users and guides them through services across the wider ecosystem.
Language capability is a practical competitive advantage. A customer who can speak or write naturally in Uzbek and receive a relevant answer is more likely to complete a task inside the application. The result is lower servicing cost for the bank and a smoother experience for the user.
Frontier markets and the global investor lens
Nika Kurdiani, the bank’s Chief Executive, said that the repeat inclusion reflects growing international interest in one of the world’s fastest-growing frontier markets, as well as the company’s market leadership and its commitment to building a deep, profitable business in Uzbekistan. The executive added that over the past year the ecosystem moved to the next level by scaling TBC Business to match the retail offering and by transforming customer experience through the use of artificial intelligence.
Uzbekistan is the most populous country in Central Asia and has become an important test case for digital finance groups looking for growth beyond mature markets. A large, young population, rising smartphone use and expanding digital payments create favourable conditions, though they also attract competition and regulatory scrutiny.
For international observers, the ranking serves as a reference point. It shows that a digital bank can be built from scratch in a frontier economy, reach scale and profitability, and still keep adding new lines of business. Whether the model can be replicated elsewhere will depend on local regulation, infrastructure and consumer habits, but the Uzbek example is likely to be studied closely.
Outlook
Another dimension is trust. International rankings do not replace local regulation, but they give customers, partners and investors an external benchmark. A bank that appears on such a list is likely to find it easier to attract talent, negotiate with technology suppliers and discuss funding with international institutions, all of which feed back into the quality of its products.
The coming year will test whether growth in business customers continues at its current pace and whether artificial intelligence delivers measurable gains in cost and service quality. Investors will also watch asset quality as lending expands. If the bank sustains its profitability while maintaining its lead in payments and consumer credit, it should remain a prominent presence in global rankings of digital financial services.
