Digitalization of Uzbekistan's Financial Sector: Local and International Experience

The payment organization ATMOS has been operating in the market of Uzbekistan for over seven years. The company's specialists are actively involved in the digitalization of key financial processes that have been unfolding in the industry recently. Mardon Anvarov, the founder and managing partner of ATMOS, provides more details about these processes to the FinTech & Retail CA platform.

FinTech & Retail CA: ATMOS is the official service provider for Visa and Mastercard cards. What advantages does this offer in terms of providing payment solutions in the Uzbekistan market for local and international clients?

M. Anvarov: I suggest dividing this question into several parts. As the official payment service provider (PSP) for Visa and Mastercard, we serve as their authorized partner in Uzbekistan. What does this mean? It's a mark of trust and compliance with their standards of service quality and security. There are several benefits we get as an official service provider.

• Direct access to international payment systems - in fact, we will route Visa and Mastercard card transactions without intermediaries.
• Proprietary technological infrastructure - this means that the company does not depend on third-party processing and can provide flexible solutions.
• PCI DSS certification (usually mandatory) - a high level of security in processing cardholder data.

The second part of the question, and in my opinion the most important one, is what we can offer to our clients and partners:

• Broader access to international payments: The ability to receive and send payments across borders. Online payments for international e-commerce platforms and services (e.g., Amazon, Netflix, Google Ads).
• Integration with local banks and fintech companies: We can serve as a back-office for banks, developing white label solutions.
• Attractive fees and terms: The absence of intermediaries allows for potential reduction in fees for both merchants and users.

Additionally, this is relevant for international players who want to access payment options such as IPS (Visa and Mastercard) and NPS (Humo and UzCard) - for them, we are the ideal solution and a trusted local partner on behalf of Visa and Mastercard. Furthermore, ATMOS can serve as a payment partner with an operational infrastructure for international fintech players in card issuance and payment acceptance. 

FinTech & Retail CA: ATMOS is a payment organization with 7 years of experience, offering a wide range of solutions for automating payment processes. What major achievements would you highlight for 2024 and early 2025?

M. Anvarov: Let me share a few words about how our specialists are contributing to the digitalization of Uzbekistan's financial sector and what key innovations we have implemented recently.

We have launched user-friendly acquiring for Visa and Mastercard cards. This allows us to offer merchants coverage for all popular card types from a single provider, while giving users the ability to link any cards on a unified page.

We have significantly expanded our market presence through strategic partnerships and onboarding several large clients, particularly in the e-commerce sector. This market is now strategically crucial for us, and we are actively broadening the range of services offered to this segment.

All our efforts are reflected in the numbers. I consider the growth of the business itself to be one of our most significant achievements. In 2024, the volume of processed transactions exceeded the equivalent of $400 million USD, with our client base surpassing 700. These are businesses that have entrusted us with payment processing in their mobile applications, websites, and other platforms. In 2025, we continue to grow rapidly, while prioritizing the maintenance of the quality standards our clients and partners have come to expect.

FinTech & Retail CA: As far as I know, the company's entire infrastructure fully complies with PCI DSS. Do you use artificial intelligence-based technologies or other new technologies in your security sphere?

M. Anvarov: That's absolutely correct. ATMOS (JSC National innovative payment technologies) complies with the QSA audit according to PCI DSS 4.1. Like all payment organizations, we undergo an annual audit and consider this approach to be the most effective. At ATMOS, payment security and the security of our built-in payment services are top priorities. After all, in fintech and banking, a well-designed IT security architecture serves as the foundation.

Currently, artificial intelligence-based agents are at the implementation stage for tracking and detecting fraudulent activity. We have been using effective fraud detection algorithms for many years. In this case, the AI agent should become a kind of "killer feature" that doesn't replace existing solutions, but rather complements them. However, there is a possibility that in the future, the AI agent will completely replace classical solutions. Additionally, new AI scoring models for evaluating borrowers when issuing installment plans are also at the implementation stage. 

FinTech & Retail CA: In your opinion, what should the online payment process be like, and how can it increase sales and customer loyalty?

M. Anvarov: First and foremost, it should be convenient, understandable, and accessible. We often joke that everything should be "for dummies," meaning extremely simple and clear. When we talk about online payment, it's not just about paying on a website or using a mobile phone. It also includes the ability to pay through invoices, payment links, and tokens.

Online acquiring should primarily maximize conversion from a potential transaction to a successfully completed one, as businesses invest considerable resources to bring potential customers to the payment page. Simultaneously, it must ensure maximum security.

From a conversion perspective, the correct flow (flow / transfer / processes and algorithms) is crucial - different companies have varying requirements. For instance, in product delivery, the order amount may change several times during fulfillment. Based on product availability or precise weight, it's important to utilize fund holding, payment confirmation, and partial refunds when necessary. This allows customers to clearly understand when and why their card is being charged. User convenience is also vital - an excellent tool for this is the ability to save a card in the app, eliminating the need for customers to enter card details with each purchase and making it easier to retain them.

ATMOS offers all the necessary tools for working with Uzcard, Humo, Visa, and Mastercard through API - enabling any business to establish an optimal payment pathway and achieve maximum conversion from potential clients to regular customers.

With the constant increase in digital threats, it is also crucial that the payment process remains secure, as the leakage of personal or card data poses a direct risk of financial loss. In this context, the measures taken by the payment organization to ensure the safety of its partners and their users are of utmost importance. It is essential that card data is stored and processed in a secure, encrypted form, and that the payment organization's infrastructure is protected from external threats. To achieve this, international standards such as PCI DSS must be implemented, along with other tools like penetration tests, etc. The payment organization must adopt these standards and take measures to ensure the security of its infrastructure.

ATMOS annually verifies its compliance with the PCI DSS standard through external audits and invests significant resources to ensure the security of its infrastructure so that ATMOS partners and their users have confidence regarding the safety of each transaction.

We have case studies where our services have genuinely helped increase sales and efficiency. For instance, ATMOS RETAIL - our service - has enabled businesses to track and monitor goods sold on installment plans, complete with payment schedules, SMS notifications, and auto-payment setup. This service has helped merchants boost sales, move products, and improve the collection of monthly payments.

Our portfolio also includes an auto-payment service for microfinance organizations. By integrating with our partners' system, we enable automatic debiting of funds from borrowers' cards according to a set schedule, without requiring them to visit an office or cashier. Clients don't need to worry about when to make payments, as the system handles this automatically. We have numerous such cases in our experience.

Our solutions are offered as PaaS (Payment-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Our payment solutions and services are used by small, medium, and large companies across various sectors of the economy, including taxi fleets, travel, marketplaces, E-commerce, HoReCa, financial institutions, and others.