Sending money by phone number: the rules from 26 November

You owe your brother 500 000 UZS. You know his phone number but not his card number, and he banks somewhere else. You open your bank's app, type his number, and the app shows a name. Is it really him, which account does the money land in, and what if you got the number wrong?

Short answer: from 26 November 2026, the Central Bank's new rules (reg. No. 3930) set one procedure for transfers between individuals by phone number through the Central Bank's Fast Payments System. Before you pay, your bank must show you the recipient's full name, their bank, the amount and the fee, and you confirm. The money arrives in real time and the recipient can use it straight away.

The resolution enters into force three months after its official publication; the legal database dates this 26 November 2026. Some news reports say 24 November. We use the database date.

How your number gets linked to an account

The recipient's number works only if it is linked to one of their accounts. The rules call this binding. The Central Bank's rules (reg. 3930, chapter 2) set how it works:

• It happens in your bank's app. You accept the bank's offer (a public contract). The offer must be written in plain, simple language.
• You consent to your data being used. The offer covers your full name, your personal ID number (PINFL), the bank's details and the details of the linked account. Without that consent there is no binding.
• One account per bank. Within one bank your number can sit on only one of your accounts. You can bind it at several banks.
• You get a binding code. The national depositors' database sends a code that appears in your app. From that moment your number is linked.
• A new number moves automatically. Register a new number in the app and the bank switches the binding to it.
• You can switch it off at any time, in the app or at a branch. The offer contract then ends.

The bank can cancel your binding without asking in only two cases: you delete your account in its app, or you turn out to be on the terrorism and proliferation list kept by the Department for Combating Economic Crimes under the Prosecutor General's Office. In either case the bank must tell you by the next banking day, give the reason and a phone number to call.

What happens when you send

1. You enter the recipient's phone number (or their binding code) in the app, or give it to a bank employee.
2. Your bank asks the Fast Payments System who it belongs to. You see the recipient's full name and the list of banks where that number is linked.
3. You choose the bank the money goes to.
4. Before you press "send", you see the amount, the recipient's full name, the receiving bank and the fee. You give a final confirmation.
5. The receiving bank accepts the payment and the money moves. In the app this works 24/7. At a branch it works on the bank's working days and hours.

If you and the recipient use the same bank, the bank may move the money inside its own books without the Fast Payments System.

After a successful transfer you get a confirmation. Keep it. It shows:

What the rules do not say

The rules say nothing about limits on these transfers, how much the fee may be, or how to get money back if you sent it to the wrong person. The fee must be shown before you confirm and printed on the confirmation. Its amount is your bank's tariff.

The payments law (ZRU-578, arts. 52 and 58) does protect you when your payment provider (usually your bank) gets it wrong. If a payment goes astray through the provider's fault, the provider must move the money to the right person by the working day after the error is found. If it does not, you can claim a refund plus a penalty of 0.1% a day, up to 10% of the amount. That protects you from errors by the bank or in the payment chain, not from your own: if you confirmed a name on screen, the payment went where you told it to. So the name check in step 2 is your main protection. If you sent it to the wrong person yourself, call your bank first. Neither these rules nor the payments law give a procedure for getting money back from a recipient who will not return it. Disputes over payments are resolved under general legislation (ZRU-578, art. 59), so get legal advice.

For the recipient

• Money received must be available to you without restrictions. Banks must make sure of that.
• The money lands in the account you manage through the bank's remote banking (its app), balance account 22616. It does not go to your card account or a deposit account. Check which account your bank has bound.
• Your full name is shown to anyone who types your number. That is the trade-off you accept in the offer.

For banks

Both the sending and the receiving bank apply their AML/CFT internal-control rules (reg. 2886) to every transfer, and the anti-fraud and cybersecurity requirements for remote services (reg. 3759). All steps must run automatically and in real time. Breaching the rules brings liability under general legislation; the rules set no fine of their own.

What to do now

• Sender: before you confirm, read the full name and the bank on screen. Choose the bank deliberately if the recipient has more than one. Keep the confirmation with its BID number.
• Recipient: check in your app which account your number is bound to, and at which banks. Unbind at banks you no longer use.
• Changing your number: register the new one in each bank's app so the binding follows you.
• Business owner paying staff or contractors this way: these rules cover transfers between individuals, from their personal accounts, only. They do not cover payments from a company account.

For the wider picture, see our guide to financial regulation in Uzbekistan. We publish short notes on new rules in Legal Alerts. Running a payment or banking product that this touches? Talk to us.

Checked against the law in Lex on 6 October 2026 · Juris Advisory

Photo: Karola G, Pexels